Oak Leaf Centennial Issue

Volume cxxxIX Issue 1

April 17, 2018

www.theoakleafnews.com

the oak leaf

The Centennial Issue

1918-2018

Photo by Donald Laird

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News

April 17, 2018

Santa Rosa Junior College’s centennial year was one of its most eventful. With cataclysmic fires forever changing the landscape of Sonoma County and scandal after controversy after crisis reshaping the political landscape of SRJC, one thing is certain: the college’s 101st year will be the start of a new era. The following section tells the story of this pivotal year.

-The Oak Leaf editors

Sonoma County’s week from hell Calistoga and parts of Sonoma Valley for two more weeks.

The Nuns Fire, the largest fire by area, held Co-Editor-in-Chief entire communities in fear as it threatened to return to Santa Rosa and nearby villages and On the night of Oct. 8-9, 2017, burned large swaths of Annadel State Park. hurricane-strength winds buffeted wildfires Nearly all of Bennett and Rincon Valleys unprecedented in size throughout Sonoma were under evacuation at some point during and Napa counties, completely leveling the 10 days of terror. neighborhoods in northern Santa Rosa and At the time of the Centennial Issue’s across the region. The North Bay—or “Wine publication, the source of ignition was Country”—fires incinerated more than still uncertain, though some witnesses and 100,000 acres, reduced 8,400 structures to billboards advertising class-action lawsuits ash, including 4,000 residences, and claimed would have us believe Pacific Gas and Electric 44 lives. power lines and negligence gave the confluence The next day, residents of Sonoma County, of factors the spark it needed to become the the nation and the world-at-large began to most destructive wildfire in California history. see the first images of the destroyed areas: Out of the frying pan, into the fire middle-class Coffey Park became ground zero The fires caused an estimated $9 billion in for national news broadcasts, while affluent damages, and already incendiary community Fountaingrove and lower-income Journey’s concerns became powder kegs.

End Mobile Home Park were indistinguishable Pre-fire Sonoma County was already in the ruins. Soon-to-be-over-used words like experiencing a housing crisis and an exodus “devastation” and “ravage” became the new of younger residents unable to make ends reality. meet under a skyrocketing cost of living. The Tens of thousands fled their homes that 5 percent loss of the county’s housing stock night and throughout the week, plagued by brought the housing crisis to a boiling point. incomplete information and an atmosphere Landlords who lost their residential homes of fear more debilitating than the toxic smoke. evicted lower-income tenants from investment At least 1,010 Santa Rosa Junior College properties while the cost of construction students and 61 employees lost their homes soared for affordable housing projects. while countless others were displaced, The economic impacts of the fires threatened prompting the college to cancel classes for two to drive away students from SRJC and burn weeks. up state apportionment during an eight-year Some 11,000 firefighters flocked from fire period of decreasing enrollment. districts as familiar as Fremont and as foreign The budgetary implications of the fires’ as Australia to assist with the containment impact on enrollment would smolder until efforts. The range of the blaze was so expansive erupting into a full-blown firestorm itself the it took the international force two weeks to following spring. achieve containment, despite working roundHeroes emerge through the smoke the-clock shifts to conduct controlled burns “The Love in the Air is Thicker than the and ember mop-ups.

Smoke” became the motto of a newly-united Mandatory and advisory evacuation zones Sonoma County community. patrolled by the National Guard and law Recently-appointed Sheriff Coroner enforcement agents from all Robert Giordano spoke over California forced fleeing on newscasts across the residents into evacuation world, earning praise for his centers, and put the town department’s handling of the under de facto martial law. “It’s our duty as SRJC chaos and communication Depending whom you asked, with the public. faculty, staff and the fear of looters was either Good Samaritans, including students to make looming or loony. many JC students, poured Despite uncertain and sure our community into improvised evacuation incomplete information, centers at the Fairgrounds, is well-taken care of community centers and public midway through the first week, one fact became clear: schools to volunteer any way pre-fire Sonoma County was in this time of need.” they could. Donations from in the past and residents were around the globe exceeded the - SGA President Evelyn county’s processing capacity. entering a new era.

How the fires moved Reality-television star and Navarro The devastation, to surprise 45th President of the further beleaguer the term, United States Donald Trump, owed its magnitude to a however, typed scarcely a true perfect storm. tweet for the community that 2017’s exceptionally hot late-summer killed voted overwhelmingly for his rival Hillary the abundant foliage 2017’s exceptionally wet Clinton. winter encouraged, adding to the dead foliage Organizations like firebrand Omar Marina’s left by years of drought. The kindling was laid. UndocuFund popped up to provide donationAll it took was a spark and the 70 mile-an- based financial assistance to undocumented hour Diablo winds to propell embers through families that didn’t qualify for federal wooded neighborhoods into the heart of the assistance. city. Obsolete community alert systems failed At SRJC, Dean of Student Affairs Robert to give endangered communities adequate Ethington led administrators, employees notice. and community members to support Bear The Tubbs Fire, which began near Calistoga, Cubs and stamp out fuming fears of mass did the majority of the damage to populated unenrolled students. areas in one fell swoop the night of Oct. 8 President Evelyn Navarro’s Student and the following morning. It would threaten Government Assembly (SGA) offered Brandon McCapes

Brandon McCapes, Dakota McGranahan and James Wyatt / Oak Leaf

Top to bottom: Fires rage in the hills of Fountaingrove over the ruins of Journey’s End Mobile Home Park on the morning of Oct. 9; homes catch aflame as the wildfires spread through the Hidden Valley neighborhood of Santa Rosa; a volunteer offers water to a resident sifting through the ashes of her incinerated home in the Larkfield-Wikiup area; Loma Linda firefighters take a breather while working in Sonoma County Oct. 10. Some 11,000 firefighters from 14 states and the country of Australia joined the fire fight.

services and free food to students in Bertolini Hall.

“SRJC is a family,” she said. “It’s our duty as SRJC faculty, staff and students to make sure our community is well-taken care of in this time of need.”

Some observers, like Michael Barnes, then Oak Leaf co-features-editor, were skeptical of the feel-good community sentiment billowing from the mouths of politicians and community members alike.

Barnes wrote an award-winning editorial questioning the permanence of the newfound community spirit.

“Let’s step up Bear Cubs and keep the love

in the air for the long haul. We’re going to need it,” Barnes said.

SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong said, “I hope students understand this this is a oncein-a-lifetime catastrophic event, so it’s not business as usual, and even when we come back, it won’t be business as usual.”

Little did Barnes and Chong know, they foreshadowed a series of political conflagrations that would inflame the SRJC community after the last of the North Bay fires were extinguished. The embers of controversy still smolder as The Oak Leaf’s special Centennial Issue goes to print. Read on for more details.

Additional reporting by Fall 2017 Oak Leaf staff.

www.theoakleafnews.com

Centennial clusterf*ck

News

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Under normal circumstances, The Oak Leaf would not use such profane language. The editors have decided that due to the out-of-the-ordinary nature of political discontent and cultural division at SRJC in 2018, this is an accurate term and not gratuitous. We apologize for any offense caused, but the controversies this semester (and last) merit extreme language.

-The Oak Leaf editors Jennifer Do / Oak Leaf

Students swarm outside President Dr. Frank Chong’s office April 2 at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Bailey Hall following the administration’s highly opposed decision to unilaterally cut the majority of summer courses in an attempt to save $2 million against a $6.5 million budget deficit. Chong fielded questions from angry students for more than hour and retracted the decision April 4 ahead of two noconfidence votes by shared government bodies.

Brandon McCapes Co-Editor-in-Chief When a senior administrator announced plans to cut the majority of the summer course load to offset Santa Rosa Junior College’s projected $6.5 million budget deficit March 29, she lit a flame under a campus rife with unrest, sparking a political “firestorm” that threatened to unseat the president of the college.

Tense salary negotiations, the adoption of state curriculum guidelines, boycotts of community events and severe budget concerns created a campus culture in which faculty, students, staff and administrators rarely saw themselves as allies.

The controversial decision, announced three days before registration was slated to begin, created an outcry that united the school against the administration. When the fires died down, the hope for a more cohesive campus emerged from the ashes.

The Unkindest Cuts Senior Vice President Dr. Mary Kay Rudolph announced the cuts in a faculty email late afternoon on a Thursday and left The Oak Leaf and concerned faculty members to inform students.

The article released online by The Oak Leaf that evening immediately became the most viewed and shared article by a factor of at least three, and because the administration provided little information, traffic to the site skyrocketed over the next week.

President Dr. Frank Chong sent out an email to students (not faculty) the next day apologizing and suggesting the decision would be reversed.

Chong said administrators didn’t realize how important summer school was to students who relied on the planned courses to stay on track with educational plans. “I really didn’t understand how important summer school was to our students,” he said.

Other community members questioned how the administration could have made a decision many considered obviously harmful.

Nancy Persons, librarian and vice president of the Academic Senate, called for a vote of no confidence in Chong that weekend.

“I cannot fathom the thinking that led to this terrible decision and its retraction—here we are pressed to help students make their way through our system in a timely manner, but we do this by cancelling the very classes that will enable that goal?” Persons wrote in an all-staff email.

“Over five years or so I have seen a steady erosion in the ability of our senior leadership to manage various challenges effectively. My own faith and trust in our senior leadership to effectively steer this

excellent ship we know as SRJC has been destroyed.” registration) in an early-morning campus sit in.

After an April 4 meeting with the advisory The decision also raised questions about the President’s Consultation Council (PCC) of motives of Rudolph and Senior Vice President of student, faculty and staff representatives, Chong Finance Doug Roberts, who were perceived to have announced no major changes would be made to pushed the decision through. the summer schedule.

Roberts, a budget hawk, and Rudolph, chief Still, the Academic Senate passed a resolution negotiator for the district in strained, monthsdeclaring no-confidence in Chong, Roberts and long salary negotiations, both announced their Rudolph that afternoon. The Student Government retirements at the end of the academic year. Some Assembly (SGA) passed a similar measure the members of the All-Faculty Association (AFA), the following week. faculty union heading up negotiations, suggested At the April 10 board meeting, board members the maneuver was a show of political might. created a committee to review the administration Many faculty members, led by Anne Donegan, over the next year and Chong social science chair, announced agreed to take a 5 percent pay boycotts of planned centennial cut. He also said he would ask events to protest the district abandoning a long-held salary“Over five years or so top administrators to take a 3 percent pay cut. determination method called I have seen a steady “Although there is much Rank 10. Moves to cut faculty talk about shared governance, salaries 3 percent came at a erosion in the ability of there is not much listening time when the board of trustees our senior leadership being experienced and raised administrative salaries even less action being 9 percent, causing faculty to manage various taken,” Department Chair members to seethe. challenges effectively. ” of Behavioral Sciences Dr. Chong explained the district Brenda Flyswithhawks said. must raise administrative -Nancy Persons, “The ultimate betrayals for salaries to remain competitive faculty and staff are when we when hiring talent. Faculty vice president of the feel devalued by the district members countered that the Academic Senate and especially when the board same reasoning applied to of trustees appears to be instructors, especially when the oblivious to it all.” cost of living in Sonoma County At the time of writing, was rising dramatically. the college community seems to be moving back “There is something very wrong at SRJC, and at towards an embrace of shared governance. While the center of the problem is President Chong,” Craig the political climate may have begun to heal after Foster, retired English instructor of 27 years, wrote months of increasing tension, the problem the the board of trustees. disdained cuts intended to solve, the $6.5 million “For reasons no one has explained, he chose deficit due to chronically declining enrollment to take the advice of two vice presidents (both of numbers, weighed heavier than ever. whom retire at the end of spring semester) rather BUDGET CRISIS! than consulting academic departments and the After the board of trustees sanctioned Chong Academic Senate in his decision to cancel summer April 10, Jolley, who replaced the embattled Roberts 2018 classes. The vice presidents, with your as chief budget overseer the week prior, gave a approval, awarded themselves substantial salary somber report of SRJC’s budget outlook. increases before their departure.”

“We’re not hearing that it’s going to get a lot better, Chong denied that Rudolph and Roberts were but we’re not hearing that it’s going to get worse,” behind the move, although he replaced Roberts as Jolley said. budget overseer with Director of Fiscal Services Increasing cost of living, aging demographics Kate Jolley, and both vice presidents were notably and an economy offering ample work opportunities absent in the following weeks. have driven an eight-year decrease in enrollment.

“They had input, but ultimately I made the SRJC receives funding from the state-based of decision,” Chong said. “When you are so-called ‘on the number of full-time equivalent students (FTES), the top,’ you have to take the heat.” or students who take 12 units each semester. Since The embattled president cried mea culpa and 2011, the number of FTES has hovered just below began to wax definitive reversal early the next week. the 20,000 mark that designates SRJC a “large Chong fielded angry questions from students for college, ” with huge budget implications. more than an hour April 2 (the first day of summer

The college lost $1.2 million from this decrease last year alone, Jolley said.

The AFA has questioned the administration’s management of the budget, citing a $10 million discrepancy in emails Chong sent over two weeks.

Chong said the college’s attempts to increase enrollment over the last 4 years have failed, and $6.5 million is not pocket change.

Painful cuts are likely in the college’s near future.

Will the community weather the coming storm together, or will divisiveness, deceit and distrust exacerbate an already grave problem?

Additional reporting by Rachel Edelstein, Kevin Johnson, Dylan Kerzin and Seamus Reed.

AFA vs district Kevin Johnson News Editor One of the most pressing issues on campus this semester has been the inability of administrators and faculty union members to strike a deal on faculty salaries.

In the Fall of 2017 the Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees voted to increase administration salaries by about 9 percent while at the same time revoking a planned 3 percent faculty pay raise.

The planned pay raise was part of a salary schedule program known as “Rank 10.”

Rank 10 is meant to keep SRJC’s faculty pay at levels comparable to the top 10 community colleges in the state. The board of trustees has used Rank 10 for more than three decades.

The move to abandon the long-held policy sparked harsh criticism from members of the All Faculty Association (AFA) and instructors said it created a toxic campus culture.

“The district seeks to eliminate Rank 10 for wholly ideological reasons, in a time of fiscal health, without any data to support this extreme action,” a March 29 AFA press release said.

By the end of 2017, salary contract negotiations had reached an impasse and the mediation process was set to begin by the end of January 2018.

In response to the failed negotiations, the AFA began a picketing campaign in Continues on page 4...

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February 2018 aimed at holding administrators accountable for abandoning the Rank 10 formula while giving top administrators a pay raise. By the end of the month, the board voted to reopen contract negotiations.

The social sciences department decided to boycott all centennial events in response to the failed contract negotiations.

The department elected to forego a grant from the 100th Anniversary Leadership Group intended to fund a workshop on the college’s history.

Anne Donegan, chair of the department, wrote in an email to the college community, “It feels wrong to spend many hours on events focusing on the great things that SRJC faculty and staff have done in the past, while our current administration seems to be less committed to supporting faculty and in turn our students in the present.”

On March 29, the administration announced a plan to cut the majority of summer term courses in an attempt to close a $6.5 million budget deficit. The cuts were said to save the college approximately $2 million in faculty pay and general summer operating costs.

The announcement, which came in the late afternoon on the last day of the academic week, was met with outrage from the AFA, students and classified staff.

SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong reversed the plan the following week and pledged to work closer with all levels of school government to close the budget shortfall. This included reentering contract negotiations between the district and the AFA as opposed to entering the factfinding stage.

“As this process progresses, I would just request that we all try to remember that, regardless of the state of negotiations, we respect one another as professionals and as colleagues,” Chong said.

At this point, the fate of salary contract negotiations is up in the air. While Dr. Chong has promised to do his best to repair the current college climate, many faculty members have lost trust that the administration will negotiate in good faith and think it will take time for Chong and other senior administrators to regain faculty respect.

At the board of trustees meeting on April 10, Behavioral Sciences Department Chair Brenda Flyswithhawks had strong words for the board and college leadership.

“Leadership from the President’s office has proven impulsive, with reckless decision-making. Every day we work in a culture and climate of fear, anxiety and mistrust,” Flyswithhawks said.

“The integrity of our institution is hanging in the balance by a thin thread. This is your moment in time—what will history write about how you responded to the crisis that occurred on the 100th anniversary of this college?”

If no progress is made in the negotiation process, which will reopen in May, it’s possible that faculty members will go on strike. AFA is preparing to vote on the creation of a strike relief fund, which would support faculty members in the event the district continues with its plan to reduce faculty salaries and faculty members decide to strike.

“It is AFA’s position that, despite the teams’ agreement to return to the table, we simply cannot wait any longer to begin preparing a Strike Relief Fund,” an April 12 AFA press release stated.

“Because of the time required by the payroll department to implement a change in payroll deductions, the vote must occur now before many faculty members prepare for the end of the semester and leave for the summer.”

How about housing?

Brandon McCapes

Co-Editor-in-Chief Santa Rosa Junior College officials said 1.4 percent of students were in some condition of homelessness and 10 percent experienced housing problems in 2016.

According to a research project by the Sonoma County League of Women Voters (LWV), Santa Rosa and Sonoma County lack sufficient affordable housing for residents in the low-to-moderate income brackets, a problem only exacerbated by the fires.

“A household with two persons employed full time at minimum wage would have to pay over half (54 percent) of their gross monthly income for a one-bedroom apartment,” the report said.

Housing is considered affordable when its cost does not exceed 30 percent of monthly income.

A majority of renters whose income falls below the median spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent, according to a Sonoma County report on housing and homelessness.

Nearly half of Sonoma County’s young people want to leave the area due to its lack of affordability.

All of these factors threaten the college’s enrollment, already crippled in recent years as students are pushed into the workforce and away from higher education due to the increased cost of living in the area.

Before the fires, the California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC) estimated Sonoma County needed more than 17,000 affordable rental homes to meet the needs of low-income renters. The fires cost the county an additional 4,000 units.

Pre-fire Santa Rosa alone had a deficit of 3,950 housing units and the additional loss of housing in the wildfires brought the total units needed in the county seat to nearly 7,000.

The county suffers a dangerously low vacancy rate of 1.5 percent. A Sonoma County Economic Development Board said the optimum vacancy rate in a healthy housing climate is between 6 and 7 percent.

“If we do not find real solutions to our housing crisis soon, we will see more and

more of our younger population and families leaving the area,” the LWV report said. “This will cause the median age to grow higher and higher, until we become primarily a senior community.”

Without enough affordable housing for lower-to-moderate income residents who make up the workforce, Sonoma County risks losing the workers essential to its booming economy.

Debbie Mckay, LVW member, said the region is feeling the long-term effects of the 2008 economic recession, which crippled the housing industry nationwide.

“We’re partly the victim of the bust in the housing industry because not a lot of housing has been built from 2008 to now,” McKay said.

State and local policies make California a particularly expensive place to build homes.

Gov. Jerry Brown ended state funding for affodable housing in 2011 and municipalities like those Sonoma County increased fees to fun affordable housing, which also makes the area less attractive to developers.

Santa Rosa also has included zoning restrictions on the height of buildings and unit density because Santa Rosans wanted to prevent the city from becoming too big with structures corrupting its picturesque views.

Felicity Gasser, senior community development specialist for Sonoma County, said the housing crisis may get worse before it gets better.

Public investment in development, increased creativity working with potential financiers and access to funding mechanisms like tax credits are necessary to recover.

“From our agency’s perspective, the response to the housing crisis is going to have to be a collaborative effort between our community partners and city and county agencies,” she said.

According to McKay, the region will have to revisit restrictive regulations to combat the shortage and its accompanying problems.

“We would also look at how to do greener housing, which could reduce the cost of housing by lowering utilities,” McKay said.

“What we can expect to see is a very slow process. I think ideally, we would build smarter from this.”

Abraham Fuentes / Oak Leaf Six months after the fires, neighborhoods like Coffey Park are beginning to rebuild. Even if every residence lost in the fires was rebuilt, Sonoma County would still need 17,000 more homes.

Staff Writers Reina Underwood, Taylor Marek Seprish, Abraham Fuentes, Dylan Kerzin, Pedro Braga, Arthur Gonzalez-Martin, Attila Laszlo, Lenita Marie Johnson, Tamayo David, Andres Pimentel, Terry Meunruakham, Jennifer Do, Luke Follow us on twitter Follow us on Instagram Benson Editors-in-Chief

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Brandon McCapes and Michael Barnes Section Editors Managing Editor | Rachel Edelstein A&E Editor | Jett Williams Features Editor | Julia Modell News Editor | Kevin Johnson Opinion Editor | Chelsea Wood Sports Editor | Matthew Wreden Deputy Sports Editor | Ian MacGregor Multimedia Editor | Jose Gonzalez Social Media Editor | Meghan Buckman Co-Photo Editor | Dakota McGranahan Co-Photo Editor | Adeira Sherpa Spanish Editor | Jose Gonzalez

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Centennial Director Chelsea Wood Layout Team Devin Schwarz, Rachel Edelstein, Editors-in-Chief Adviser Anne Belden Peer Assisted Learning Specialist Devin Schwarz

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April 17, 2018

Stories that rocked the 100th year

Courtesy of Sonoma County Sheriff ’s Office

Logologoa Tevaseu after his Nov. 5 arrest.

SRJC football coach kills SSU student in DUI accident Police arrested assistant football coach Logologoa “Logo” Tevaseu, 35, on suspicion of drunk driving and murder after he crossed into oncoming traffic and drove head on into a Sonoma State student’s sedan on Lakeville Highway, Nov. 5, 2017. She died on the scene.

Paulette Quiba, 21, was returning to Sonoma County after visiting her family in the East Bay, when Tevaseu’s passing attempt claimed her life. Quiba was a third-year business major.

Teveseu was convicted of drunk driving in 2012, and the second offense with a fatality qualifies him for a murder conviction.

“We’re all in shock right now,” head coach Lenny Wagner said. “Everybody involved needs prayers—the girl, her family, Logo and his family. It’s just tragic in every direction.”

Originally reported by Albert Gregory Academic Senate president put on paid leave after sexual misconduct allegations During a time when women were coming forward to accuse men in power of sexual misconduct and assault, a former SRJC student accused Academic Senate President Eric Thompson of beginning a relationship with her while she was his 16-year-old highschool student 25 years prior.

The college put Thompson on paid leave while it conducted an investigation.“While I was a student at Ursuline High School, my high school teacher, Eric Thompson, sexually assaulted me from age 16 to age 18,” Chavez said in a Nov. 15, 2017 Facebook post. “At age 15, the ‘grooming’ began. He was 35 at the time.” Thompson was also an adjunct instructor at SRJC at the time.

Though Thompson staunchly denied the allegations, friends and family members corroborated Chavez’s story. No official record of the alleged abuse existed.

The college’s investigation, which looked into the last four years of Thompson’s conduct, found no reason to open disciplinary proceedings. He returned from leave over winter break and was a pivotal figure in the Spring 2018 political controversies.

Originally reported by Brandon McCapes Guided Pathways threatens local autonomy On Jan. 1, 2017, the Academic Senate consented to provide the final signature needed to adopt the statewide Guided Pathways program that pitted the faculty and student interests against each other.

After weeks of deliberation, a reluctant Check out our website: Senate approved the program and President www.theoakleafnews.com Eric Thompson signed the document that would initiate changes in the internal structure of SRJC’s curriculum, and at the same time Like us on facebook Follow us on Instagram makeSRJCOakleaf it eligible for additional state funding.

OakleafNews Exactly what the program’s adoption means for SRJC remains unclear.

Originally Reported by Brandon McCapes

www.theoakleafnews.com

Neo-Nazi wrote Oak Leaf’s worst column Dylan Kerzin Staff Writer In journalism, ethical lines can blur when deciding what is suitable to publish under the guise of free speech.

In spring of 2003 an extremely controversial article ran in the Santa Rosa Junior College student newspaper, The Oak Leaf.

Kevin McGuire, an engineering student, authored a piece titled “Is Anti-Semitism ever the result of Jewish behavior?”

The article insinuated that “Jewish Israel” was the biggest terrorist organization in the world and posed the question that perhaps Anti-Semitism was the result of Jewish behavior.

McGuire wrote, “Israel is currently and has been historically involved in a genocidal war against the Arab world.

The Zionist Jews believe they are the ‘chosen people’ of God and that the world was given to them and is their possession.”

McGuire’s claims were outlandish, unfounded and flat out lies. Most of his citations were from white supremacist websites, specifically NationalVanguard.org.

McGuire also claimed the “Jewish war of genocide” was being funded by the United States, right off American taxpayers’ backs.

“Since 1973, Israel has officially received $2.5 million in U.S. Foreign aid. Divide that by the current U.S. population and it’s over $5,700 paid per U.S. citizen. On average Israel receives $6.3 billion per year, or $17 million per day,” McGuire wrote.

McGuire moved to Bozeman, Mont. a

few years later and ran for the Bozeman school board in 2005 on the platform of a white separatist group, The National Alliance.

He shared the group’s beliefs that public schools were ignoring white children and promoting homosexuality.

In 2009, through his Victory Forever website, McGuire placed advertisements in student newspapers in California and Indiana. Both ads, one appearing in the Lowell High School newspaper in San Francisco on Nov. 13 and the second appearing on Nov. 20 in the Carmel High School newspaper in Carmel, Ind., advertised free music downloads from the website.

In an article written on the AntiDefamation League’s website, author Erin Entrada Kelly wrote, “According to one of the student newspapers, the Victory Forever website originally had a page offering music by independent artists, including at least one AfricanAmerican artist. However, between the time when the ads were purchased and when they ran, the site was apparently changed to its present, explicitly white supremacist form.”

In August 2009 McGuire faced a trespassing charge in Kootenai County District Court after he was arrested outside Jimmy C’s bar in Athol, Ida. Bar patrons said he’d been making racist comments, but McGuire told Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies they only wanted him to leave “because I’m white,” according to court documents.

Kristinae Toomians, then 19, was the editor-in-chief who approved publishing the article in 2003. She explained how she and the faculty adviser at the time, Rich Mellott, were stretched thin during the incident, saying “There wasn’t really anyone working at the paper.”

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Toomians said towards the end of the semester, there was hardly anyone to help write stories, take photos or work on layout.

“There was a separate journalism writing class that was supposed to feed the paper content, but they didn’t provide much,” Toomians said.

“There’s really no good excuse. I was naive and stupid.”

Toomians said Mellott had a hot Illustration by Chelsea Wood / Oak Leaf temper and was difficult to work with; Kevin McGuire’s racist and anti-semitic rhetoric leaves damage where ever he goes. ultimately their relationship ended poorly. She said she was burnt out and semester. So the ‘essay’ caused flaming decision, regardless of whether it was the article slipped through the cracks. emails to individuals and on the protected speech.

Toomians was editor-in-chief as a distribution list.”

Toomians ended on notes of regret freshman. “I remember thinking it was a The Academic Senate wanted to and sadness at the legacy she left in the pro-Palestinian piece,” Toomians said. “I punish those responsible for the wake of McGuire’s opinion piece. essentially put that newspaper together Oak Leaf’s production by imposing “I learned a great deal from all by myself.” censorship on the paper and a pre- the experience, but of course “I’m 34 now. I was 19 then, with very publication review process of all content. I have many, many regrets,” limited life experience. I knew the letter “That’s where I came in. I was not Toomians said. “I worked very to the editor would get some backlash, department chair, but I was probably the hard, but unfortunately, will only but I didn’t expect the amount of press, ‘lead’ full-time faculty member in the be remembered for publishing vitriol, vandalism, threats, etc.,” she said. area of media,” LaFrance said. “I believe, McGuire’s piece. It was a very dark, “With 15 years of hindsight, I would have to my death, in freedom of the press and difficult period in my younger years never published the letter as submitted.” freedom of speech.” that I’d rather not relive.”

Some faculty, including those at the Toomians described her response to Though the incident marred both paper, thought the content itself was all the anger, outrage and debate that the Oak Leaf and SRJC, some positive outrageous, but believed the article was erupted on campus from the opinion came out of it. protected under free press and supported piece.

Anne Belden, current Oak The Oak Leaf’s right to publish.

“After it ran, I fought to prevent Leaf faculty advisor, has used Ed LaFrance, retired communication the administration from applying McGuire’s piece as an exercise in her studies instructor, said, “During the a pre-publication review process introduction to journalism courses second semester, everyone is fried, and censorship,” Toomians said. for the past 14 years to teach students stressed out and already burnt on “We published two pages of angry about journalism ethics. And two Oak school.” It was a time when tensions letters in response to the article. Leaf editors were given free trips to were already high on campus, so it was One of our staff writers wrote a Israel for student journalists because perfect conditions for escalation after piece in opposition, and I clarified the sponsoring organization, which the piece ran. that the original opinion piece was mostly recruited from Ivy League “Could be a student walkout about the not from a staff writer and did not schools, thought the Oak Leaf to be an Florida shooting. Could be a fight over reflect the opinions of the paper, antisemitic publication and wanted to pay. Could be a battle over parking— staff or the editor.” educate its editors.

All hell breaks loose.” LaFrance said.

In hindsight, Toomians recognizes “As I recall, it happened during second that running the piece was a bad Additional reporting by Séamus Reed

Puente and Connections:

Bridging the gap to education for first-generation college students Jose Gonzalez Multimedia/Spanish Editor For first-generation students like Cristal Lopez, 21, a sociology major at Santa Rosa Junior College, completing a college career is a challenging experience.

“Both my parents were unable to complete their basic education and as the oldest of three, they emphasized the importance of an education,” Lopez said.

First-generation students like Lopez struggle in finding motivation to attend school or don’t have the same support system as other students.

With learning communities like Puente and Connections, navigating the complexity of obtaining a degree is made easier because students have support networks.

Luz Navarrete, a former counselor, and Gloria de Blasio, a former English instructor, brought Puente to Santa Rosa Junior College in 1981. The program was designed to increase the number of MexicanAmerican community college students transferring to four-year universities.

Puente in English translates to bridge, and the program’s purpose is to help students build bridges with instructors, politicians and colleagues to make them successful in the future.

About 50 students apply to Puente every year and roughly 30 are accepted.

The program offers counseling and English courses with designated

staff who help students excel at the community college level.

Coordinator Guillermo Garcia is in his third-year of the program.

Garcia is a Puente alumni from Fullerton Community College.

“Echale Ganas,” Garcia said. “Never give up, keep motivated and don’t give up on your goals.”

Puente distinguishes itself from other programs by providing mentorships that guide students and planned visits to four-year universities during spring break.

“Puente helped me organize my academic plan and opened me to new opportunities, like going to SoCal and looking at universities,” said Saul Soriano, 21, a third-year Puente student and enology major.

Puente strives to give students that first step into college by giving them the support system and connection with professors.

“I have found people that will stick to my side during hard times, people who share the same ideas and share new perspectives of different topics,” said Denise Mendez, 18, a first-year Puente student with a psychology major.

The Puente program is designed to help students transfer, but does not have a settled calendar for students to transfer in the threeyear cap of the program.

The number of students applying to Puente is increasing each year, limiting the space for first-generation students.

“As a first-generation college student and as a Latina, primary and secondary

education failed to expose me to my ethnic culture. Feeling like an outsider, I decided to join the HSI Connections Program during my first semester in College,” Lopez said.

“The emphasis on Latinx struggles, achievements, and diversity through open discussions, readings, and community service encouraged me to join the conversation outside of school. Through my participation in Latinx student panels, I was able to truly understand that so many students shared the same feelings I had during my childhood education.”

Puente and Connections are two different programs with similar goals.

“Puente has been very successful, so why not duplicate it in a different way but offer a little bit more to the students,” said Juan Arias, director for the Hispanic Serving Institute Initiatives, HSI. Arias, among other colleagues, developed the idea of building a new program to help first- generation students transfer in three years or less.

“I’m motivated to continue my higher education because I want to be part of creating a college-going culture for people of color with a history of low educational attainment like myself,” Lopez said.

HSI or Connections is a learning community that started in 2015, and currently serves 219 students. Programs such as these help incoming firstgeneration students and returning students navigate junior college en route to a four-year institute within three years.

“This spring semester we will have our

Jose Gonzalez / Oak Leaf

Cristal Lopez, 21, uses the lab time Connections provides to complete homework.

first class graduating with an associates degree and/or transferring to a four-year college,” Arias said.

The Connections program offers counseling courses, English classes, math tutoring, academic counseling and classes that have reserved seats for Connections students only.

“There’s a lot of people who I share the same interest with. Talking to them made me keep going to school because we’re all going through the same and they keep me motivated,” said Monica Mendoza, 19, first-year Connections student.

Connections students bond and encourage each other to achieve. They effectively create connections and network with others.

“Connections has given me the confidence to meet new people. I have become friends with a lot of them, and I feel more confident with

them,” Mendez said.

Juan Nuno, 19, a first-year Connections student said, “What keeps me motivated is teachers and students striving for success while working hard to get where they want to get.”

Connections program has its own space in Garcia Hall called MI CASA (Multicultural Innovation Center for Academic Success & Achievement), where Connections students can stop by to connect with other program students, get help, or access computers, printers, snacks, and coffee.

As for Lopez, she received her associate’s degree in social and behavioral science with highest honors last semester and will complete her sociology AA-T this semester. “I am beyond proud of my determination to make my parents, siblings and myself proud,” she said.

6

Features

The years under the oaks Jennifer Do Staff Writer

Upward and onward, whether sticking to its roots or chopped like weeds, the valley oaks will form many more rings and take on many new forms.

The evergreen backdrop of the campus branches out onto plush, green scenes providing a canopy of shade for re-energizing Bear Cubs.

As Santa Rosa Junior College turns 100, many valley oak trees on campus also earned their hundredth ring.

Tracing back to 1918 and earlier, the roots of the old oak trees and native plants covered 99 acres of rich valley land.

The area inspired world-renowned horticulturist, Luther Burbank, serving as a favorable ground for many botanical experiments. The green environment continues to yield admirers.

In 1930 the Chamber of Commerce donated Burbank Park to the Santa Rosa Board of Trustees. Half the agreement mandated keeping the natural setting of the memorial park intact. Today, Burbank Park still remains as the lawn that spans SRJC’s front entrance.

In 1984-1985, a “heritage tree protection zone” began for the 150 Valley Oak, Quercus Lobata trees, of over 250-years-old.

In 1993, an oak tree was sacrificed to make way for the Frank P. Doyle Library. Segments of the tree are displayed on each library floor. The art piece titled,“Wood Sculpture” was made by local sculptor Bruce Johnson.

In July 1996, more than 1,400 trees consisting of 400 different species were planted.

SRJC’s green landscaping was aesthetically pleasing enough to be featured in the 1996 movie, “Phenomenon.”

Older oaks get weaker with age and are more prone to falling in harsh conditions. In November 2013, a 250-year-old tree in the “heritage tree protection zone,” behind the main SRJC sign in Burbank Park, fell during a windstorm.

In April 2014, three more trees near the graduation platform, more than 100 years old, were removed due to potential hazards.

One-to-two trees that present a hazard are cut down annually, predominantly due to weakening with age or fungal disease.

The trunks of felled trees are donated or recycled throughout the district or campus to take on new forms through sculptures, mulch, benches and tables scattered amongst campus grounds.

In 2017, SRJC was recognized as “Tree Campus USA” by Arbor Day Foundation.

In 2018, a 450-year-old tree behind Bailey Field was felled due to age.

The campus groves serve as art pieces to bark at and benches for limbs to rest upon now and for future students.

April 17, 2018

SRJC photography faces a ‘Breth-less’ future Adeira Sherpa Co-Photo Editor

For the past 31 years, Renata Breth passed on her passion for photography to Santa Rosa Junior College students.

Breth now bids adieu to her position as the only full-time photography instructor at SRJC, and worries that the photography program she’s helped build for decades will suffer. “I hope soon have enough funds to hire someone full time.”

Breth’s tenure at SRJC coincided with perhaps the most rapid technological advances in photography in the last 100 years.

Indeed, the SRJC photography program has come a long way from the Kollege Kamera Klub of 1928 followed by the Lens and Shutters club of 1934.

In 1935 four Santa Rosa Junior College students under the supervision of Dr. Royal F. Sessions employed an airplane, infrared plates and a camera to photograph Mt. Shasta and the moon, or so says a story printed in Volume IX of the Oak Leaf.

It wasn’t until 1954 that the photography lab moved out of the science building to its new home in the Coop, where much like today in the showcases lining Analy Hall’s staircase, students’ photography was displayed on the walls.

In April of 1974 a collection of 85 photographs by Ansel Adams graced the SRJC art gallery walls.

Twenty years later Renata Breth’s photographs were on those same walls as a Dia De Los Muertos exhibit.

Breth’s childhood began in Vienna, Austria; she moved to the U.S. to attend college. Despite studying chemistry and math as an undergraduate, Breth went on to obtain her MFA in photography and filmmaking at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Breth enjoyed the exploration AIC allowed her. “You don’t have to concentrate on one major. You can find out what you’re good at. You can take shoe design if you want to,” she said.

“I loved capturing a moment. I’m a collector. I need to collect; I don’t have a good memory. I always needed that notebook, what’s called in French, et memoir,” Breth said.

Breth traveled the world, camera in hand. “The photograph, for one thing, is very democratic. It freezes a point in time the way I might not have seen it.

It’s the present and the past, all in this photograph,” she said.

When someone stole her camera in Mongolia, Breth made due with a cheap point-and-shoot camera.

She photographed the innovative architecture of Abu Dhabi and captured the small African telecentres, colorful huts people used to make phone calls because not everyone could afford a phone. In her extensive travels, Breth exposed cultural differences through her own unique lens, whether her subject was cell phone yielding strangers on subways or patrons observing art in museums.

Breth’s Sabbatical Exhibit,

Kevin Johnson

became the Chancellor of City College of San Francisco. He was looking for someone to fill out his administration.

He gave me the opportunity to work at a community college and I loved it.

It always intrigued me whether other Asian-Americans could be in non-traditional positions. A lot of Chinese and Asian-Americans are tracked to be doctors and engineers. I guess I was wired differently. I was always really into politics and social change.

OL: You had a chance to serve as deputy assistant for community colleges at the Department of Education.

What was the most important work you did there?

PFC: That appointment to work for the Obama Administration was really the highlight of my life. It was such an honor, and I’m most proud of the fact we pushed for greater access for education.

During the recession, when President Obama first came in, every department in the cabinet was reduced in funding except education. To me, the administration was very supportive of community colleges. They knew that we were the best and most cost-effective way to really educate millions of students.

OL: You’ve been an outspoken advocate for minorities and education throughout your career. What does that mean to you and what does that say about Sonoma County’s community?

PFC: It means a lot to me just to be asked to lead a college that is so prestigious and has such a rich history. When I first came here, the student population was 25 percent Latino. Today it’s 33 percent. To sit in this office, I think

Adeira Sherpa / Oak Leaf

Santa Rosa Junior College photography instructor Renata Breth critiques a student’s sample prints during lab hours.

showcased in the Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery in 2011, featured a series titled “Zuluzeit.” The series focused on airports with images of passengers and their luggage, advertisements posted on walls, empty lobbies and planes preparing for take off.

When not pursuing her own photography, she spends her time helping others fall in love with it.

Breth began teaching at SRJC as an adjunct faculty member alongside full-time instructor John LeBaron. It wasn’t easy following an instructor like LeBaron. Students were accustomed to his style, and even without sites like Rate My Professor, they still held expectations for how the course should be. It took Breth a couple of semesters to gain student acceptance.

Breth has been a full-time art instructor since 1997, serving as the department chair from 2005-2008.

She witnessed the transition from exclusively analog courses to the inclusion of digital.

She prefers analog photography and doesn’t fear for it as an artform.

“Students are still fascinated with the process and all the top art schools still

An afternoon with Frank Chong News Editor

Dr. Frank Chong is the first person of color to become president of Santa Rosa Junior College. He is a proud Chinese-American who broke the mold with his social influence. Chong sat down with The Oak Leaf, and shared his upbringing, ambitions, accomplishments and the projects SRJC has to look forward to.

Oak Leaf: As the youngest of five children who lost your father at a young age, and grew up in New York City, how did that influence your ambitions?

President Frank Chong: Being a Chinese, Asian-American growing up, you really didn’t see a lot of figures who looked like me who were presidents, or mayors or NBA players. We struggled to find role models. So I figured, if I didn’t have my own role models, maybe one day I could be a role model to other young Asian-Americans. I think I’ve been able to do that. For me, growing up in those circumstances made me grow up faster—not having a dad and having my mom struggle to support five children. I’m just really grateful that my siblings, whom I’m still very close to, made it through.

OL: When did you realize you wanted to get into higher education administration?

PFC: I fell into it accidentally. I met a fellow named Evan Dobelle and he

it means a lot for students of color to see somebody like myself get to a position of influence. I try not to take that for granted. I’m a president for all the students, not just students of color. The great thing of community college is that there is such a rich diversity of age, gender, religion and geographic.

OL: You’re only the fifth person to be named president at Santa Rosa Junior College. What does that say about this college?

PFC: It says that people who come here don’t want to leave. It says that this is a great community that supports its community college and its president. When I go to statewide conferences and tell people I’m only the fifth president in over a hundred years, their jaws and eyes drop.

I’ve been very fortunate to be selected to be one of the five.

OL: What are the current projects for the near future and what is your vision for SRJC in 10 years?

PFC: Currently, we are working on spending the $410 million from Measure H. We’re starting to see some of the portables come up. We’re re-doing the theatre, which is very exciting. A lot of community folks come here to watch our plays and listen to our music. When the theatre is finished, it’ll be a state-ofthe-art theatre. We’re also going to redo the athletic facilities that are pretty worn down. Finally, the science building will be built. It will be state-of-the-art, so that students who go into nursing and STEM fields will have a great facility.

We also put a lot of money into sustainability projects. This summer, you’re going to see hundreds of photovoltaic

have film programs,” she said.

She’s also watched as students’ attention spans dwindled with the availability of their cell phones. It has become increasingly difficult to compete with the pocket-sized screens during lectures, but Breth still tries to maintain engagement.

“She’s extremely knowledgeable.

She’s very good at looking at images and seeing what’s interesting about them and what’s really going on in them,” said Greg Carney, 22, a current student of Breth’s Devyn Ballard, 17, a Pathways Charter High school student, said, “She can be tough. You might feel a little intimidated or she might push you, but it’s all worth it. She’s really good about praising you for a job well-done.”

Breth’s current responsibilities include supervising the lab technician, purchasing and maintaining supplies, advising students and participating on committees, essentially bridging the gaps between different departments.

But with no full-time photography instructor replacing Breth’s position next semester, it’s concerning for the workload of other full-time professors in the art department who are responsible for evaluating adjunct faculty.

Although the administration is currently in financial straits, Breth said, “You really owe to the student to have a full-time person who is not distracted by going to teach in three different places.”

A woman who dedicated her life to the SRJC photography program is finally taking some time for her son and herself but wishes to instill one last message to all those wishing to pursue photography.

“Like any art, photography is a practice, you have to do it a lot, even daily. Make your photographs with intention, have courage to try something new, yet be self-critical and always learn from your mistakes.”

Arthur Gonzalez-Martin / Oak Leaf

President Dr. Frank Chong says he doesn’t take it for granted that he is the college’s fifth president and first one of color.

[solar] panels in the parking lot. Hopefully, we will use that electricity to decrease our energy bill and costs. There also will be charging stations for electric cars. We want to be real green; we want to save money. OL: What is your favorite part of being a college president?

PFC: The fun part is meeting students. Seeing the impact the college has on its community and their lives.

I’m a people person, so I love meeting with students, faculty and staff. I love being around the quad and seeing what’s happening there.

FUN FACT: Our SRJC president is a huge basketball and sports fan. During his academic career at UC Berkeley, he refereed intramural sports.

Additional reporting by Terry Meunruakham

Features

www.theoakleafnews.com

7

SRJC weathered International student population rocky start before soars to all time high growing roots in Sonoma County Pedro Braga Staff Writer

Rachel Edelstein Managing Editor If you asked someone 100 years ago if SRJC was going to make it, they might have said no.

Gaye LeBaron, SRJC alumni and local historian, told audience members during a lecture that the school went through a series of ups and downs since it’s beginning in 1918, March 29 in Bertolini.

In her lecture titled, “What if Women built a community college - and EVERYbody came?” Lebaron shared the history of the school.

Fourteen women, the wives of local community leaders, birthed the idea of the junior college.

In its first year, the school closed for five weeks because of the Spanish Flu pandemic.

The original dean of SRJC, Clyde Wolfe, resigned after just one year, saying it was doomed to be “no more than a bump on the side of the high school.”

However, Santa Rosa was becoming an economic leader in California. In this boom, the especially determined Floyd Bailey saw potential in the college.

Bailey organized an election that created a separate junior college district in after becoming dean of SRJC in 1921 and later president in 1934.

He recruited a football team, hired superior faculty and built the heart of the college.

When the campus was still in its early construction, Bailey perceptively instructed maintenance workers to wait to pave the pathways to see where students naturally preferred to walk.

After the dirt paths were tread, the

bricks were laid. The foundation for success was set.

Step by step, SRJC weathered setbacks including the Great Depression, protests over the 1968 Kent State shootings and fluctuating enrollment.

LeBaron’s lecture painted a picture of the role SRJC had and has in the community.

“I’m a freshman, so I probably wouldn’t have learned anything about the school history if I hadn’t attended today,” said nursing student Alfio Basile, 19.

LeBaron also told the story of the much-asked about dog statues outside the SRJC museum.

“It turns out there was a foundry on Highway 12 and Mission Boulevard,” she said.

During WWII, when iron was reclaimed for weapons, the foundry owners gave their dog sculptures to SRJC on loan for protection.

They were never returned.

The end of WWII brought troops, nurses and volunteers home in droves. These people, who previously might never have left Sonoma County, had seen the world and brought their expanded perspectives back to the area.

Thanks to the G.I. Bill they were able to attend SRJC to pursue an education.

“I’m from Detroit. It was interesting to learn about the JC, especially the fact that it was started by women,” said Allante Leapheart, 24, sociology student.

SRJC enrollment is now in the tens of thousands.

“It’s no bump on the side of anything anymore,” LeBaron said.

Historically, financial limitations prevented most people from outside the United States from pursuing an education in the country. The range of international students who attend Santa Rosa Junior College has greatly expanded since the school’s first round of visitors.

The first international students came to SRJC during the 1940s and the oldest reference to their presence can be found in a 1957 article from The Oak Leaf titled, “New International Club.”

Oak Leaf staff reported, “Sixteen foreign students, representing 10 different countries enrolled at SRJC, feel that with world tension at its greatest, living together and learning the ways of others is of the greatest importance.”

According to the article, students from countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Iran, Korea, Indonesia, China, Japan and others were the first International Club members. They created the club with the idea of discussing social problems and finding ways to ease the international students’ struggles of living in a different country.

Later in the same year, an Oak Leaf article mentioned the club’s first major act with the headline, “International Students Speak To JC Mothers.”

SRJC’s first members of the International Relations Club in 1967.

because they knew someone in the area or because they applied like any other American student. Essentially, international students came to SRJC in an informal way.

In 1984 SRJC started recruiting F1Visa students, which are students that have permission to live in the U.S. for school. Peter Brainich, manager of international relations at the time, processed the applications.

Eight years later in 1992, Kim Hunt was hired as International Students Advise and began processing these applications and monitoring all reports to the Department of Homeland Security. By this time SRJC’s international students population was somewhere Members of the International Stu- between 40 to 50 students.

dents Club participated in a panel discussion at the monthly Mothers’ Club meeting in the faculty lounge.

They discussed the times’ issues and got in contact with each other to find solutions.

Most of the students came to SRJC

In January 2012, SRJC hired Dr. Frank Chong as the school’s fifth president. One of Dr. Chong’s goals was to increase diversity on campus through the recruitment of international students.

He hired Peg Saragina, a full-time

business instructor, as the director of international programs. The program was interested in international relations and conducting research growing the international program.

Finally, during Fall 2012, the International Office opened.

Peg Saragina said, “We want our local students to be more exposed and not read it out of a book.”

Saragina and Dr. Chong’s main reason for bringing international students is to achieve the goal of diversifying the SRJC campus.

Each spring SRJC hosts around 20 students from Borås, Sweden. They are third-year students in a business entrepreneurship program and they stay with SRJC faculty and community members.

SRJC employees travel the world to recruit students. Presently 194 international students are enrolled. The international department’s goal for next semester is to expand the amount of foreign students to 400.

SRJC’s Kollege Kampus Karnival The Oak Leaf used the letters “K.K..K” to fill empty spaces in issues dating from 1925 to the late 1930s.

Julia Modell Features Editor

Adeira Sherpa / Oak Leaf

Gaye LeBaron lectures about the history of SRJC during Women’s History Month. The college was started by women in 1918 and operated out of Santa Rosa High School.

The Oak Leaf archives

Three letters kept showing up in the Oak Leaf archives. Three letters that, to most who saw them, pointed at either egregious racism or complete apathy.

Over and over Oak Leaf staffers would see these triggering letters and hope it was a case of embarrassing oversight. The K.K.K.s plastered on every issue of the 1930’s Oak Leaf papers stood for Kollege Kampus Karnival.

The Karnival was the big event of the SRJC year. It featured bands, sideshows, club booths and a big dance to cap off the festivities. Among the events featured at the Karnival was the “N****r Dunking” booth put on by the Engineering Club and the “N****r Slugging” contest sponsored by the Luncheon Club.

Though events like this were common at this time, moder

readers will still find it striking that something like this could happen at a college sponsored event and that it excitedly promoted violence. The K.K.K. held events where people beamed and dunked club members dressed in black face. Could this be a coincidence? Or did the carnival name allude to the white supremacist organization?

In 1923, the Ku Klux Klan rallied in Santa Rosa. The Sonoma County Klansmen burned a cross and held an initiation ceremony west of Petaluma Hill Road. In 1925, The Kollege Kampus Karnival started and continued, although pausing for a few years, through 1938.

More investigation is necessary to understand the intentions and affiliations of the Karnival, but SRJC’s K.K.K. surely exemplifies our community’s racist past.

Check theoakleafnews.com for a more in depth story in the weeks to come.

The Oak Leaf archives

The Oak Leaf archives

The letters that represent the “Kollege Kampus Karnival” create the same acrynom of the white supremacist group the “Ku Klux Klan.”

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1. Cardi B 3. Avocado toast

2. Black Panther 4. Coco

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1. Stephen Hawking

2. Weed

3. Fires

4. Police brutality

A&E

Features

1. Cardi B: First female artist to achieve a gold-status album on the day of its release (500,000 albums sold).

2. Black Panther: This superhero movie featuring almost an entirely black cast was one of the highest-grossing movies of the first quarter of 2018.

3. Avocado toast: Deemed and ridiculed as a “millennial snack.” Americans spend $900,000 a month on avocado toast.

4. Coco: The first Mexico-based Pixar movie broke records its opening night and won two Oscars, for Animated Feature Film and Original Song for ‘Remember Me’ leading song.

1. Stephen Hawking: An English theoretical physicist and author of “A Brief History of Time” died on March 14, 2018.

2. Weed: California legalized recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2018. Proposition 64 allows people 21 and older to use the drug alongside Proposition 215 medicinal cannabis users.

3. Fires: In the middle of the night of Oct. 8-9, 2017, the most devastating wildfire in California history engulfed Santa Rosa businesses and entire neighborhoods. More than 1,010 students and 61 faculty members lost their homes.

4. Police brutality: Starting with the 2014 murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the widespread negative police treatment of unarmed black men received mainstream attention. The unethical and systematic targeting of black men yielded the cultural movement Black Lives Matter.

Slang 2017-2018

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ella: An older but still relevant adverb used for emphasis of quality and quantity, specific to Northern California. Ex: “That’s hella sick dude! Congrats on the baby.” “You hella just ran a red light!”

Gas: Very good. Also a state of matter. Ex: “Dude, that burrito was gas.” “I didn’t hit any traffic on the way to LA. It was gas.”

Suh: An extremely abbreviated, bastardization of asking “what’s up.” Ex: *sees someone they know* “Suuuuuhhh bro.”

Lit: A positive adjective meaning exciting or cool. “The party last night was hella lit.” “The Oak Leaf is lit.”

YOLO: Short for “you only live once,” something you say as an excuse to do something risky or otherwise

dangerous. “YOLO! *chugs Vodka with work the next day*” Bunk: Somewhere/thing that is gross, lame or stupid. “Ew. This bar is bunk.”

Dank: Used to describe something as positive, especially cannabis. “I bought some dank pre-rolls yesterday.”

“That pony ride was dank” Okurrrrrrr: An over-the-top version of “okay.” Popularized by up and coming rap artist Cardi B. (roll your tongue on the R). “Hey Daniel, lets go get tacos. OKURRRRRRRRR!!!”

Turnt (up): Used to describe a person’s state of inebriation. “Our sports editor is turnt again.”

Hyphy: When a party gets rowdy, crowded and energetic. Also associated with Bay Area-based rappers such as

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2. DACA 4. Housing crisis

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3. Climate change

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Opinion

News 1. Trump: Since his unlikely presidential victory in November 2016, the realityTV star and real estate billionaire has dominated the news cycle with unpredictable and terrifying tweets and policy decisions.

2. DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was the Obamaera immigration policy that allowed children brought to the U.S. illegally to maintain a two-year deportation deferral and qualify for a work permit.

The policy assisted more than 800,000 people until Trump announced its repeal in Sept. 2017.

3. Shootings: Since the first major mass school shooting in 1999 at Columbine, Colo., mass shootings have increased at an alarming rate. From 2017 to April 2018, sources report between 273 and 337 mass shootings. Congress still has not passed common-sense gun control laws.

4. Housing crisis: Before the Oct. 8 fires, Sonoma County already had a serious housing shortage. More than 5,000 homes burned in the fires, exacerbating the problem.

Mac Dre, E-40, Andre Nickatina and SOB X RBE. “We got so hyphy for Ian’s birthday, I lost one of my shoes.”

Woke: To be socially conscious.

“My instructor is so woke she asked everybody what their preferred gender pronouns are.”

AF: Used as a basis of comparison, stands for as f*ck. “This sandwich is dank AF!” GOAT: Stands for “Greatest Of All Time.” Used to describe someone or something very highly. “Tom Brady/Lebron James is GOAT.” “My instructor is the GOAT; he canceled our test today.”

Low-key: When you want something on the down low, but don’t need to be discrete about it. “I lowkey want to skip class and go to

1. Data privacy: With companies like Facebook buying and selling user data, internet privacy has become a major concern. Mark Zuckerberg had to testify in front of Congress for breaches of User Trust’s privacy.

2. Rape culture: Since Brock Turner received a shockingly light sentence in 2016 for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on the Stanford University campus, and the #MeToo movement took storm against systemic sexual misconduct in 2017, discussion about rape culture has become a central point in the cultural conversation.

3. Climate change: Although President Trump doesn’t believe it, the overwhelming majority of scientists and Americans agree climate change is caused by human activity. Natural disasters are becoming more common, sea levels are rising and average temperatures are heating up.

4. Racism: President Trump’s election empowered fringe groups, like NeoNazis and white supremacists, to be more vocal about their agenda.

the beach today.”

Clutch: When someone/thing comes through. Usually used in sports.

“I can’t believe Steph made that shot.

It was clutch.” “It would be so clutch if you had gum; my breath stinks.”

Gucci: A classy way to say good.

“Sorry I stepped on your Balenciaga Triple S Trainers shoes!!!” “Don’t worry baby ,it’s all Gucci.”

Finesse: To do something in a slick or smooth manner. “I finessed my way out of a ticket by crying in front of the cop.”

On fleek: When your body, outfit or even an object is really working. “Your outfit is on fleek, Cameron.”

Skrt!: The sound of tires screeching used as emphasis for almost any situation. “SKRT!”

Bae: The state of a relationship before you are boyfriend and girlfriend. “You see Nick’s new bae?”

Side chick: For men who have dual loyalty and have a main girlfriend and another girlfriend on the side. “My girlfriend met my side chick and it was awkward AF.” Plug: When you ask for something and the person giving it to you gives you more than requested. “Dude, I got two scoops of chicken at chipotle.

Chipotle is the plug!”

L: Abbreviation for “loss.” “Bro, I asked her out and she threw her phone at me. That was one of the biggest L’s I’ve ever taken.”

Turn down: To come down. “I’m on a turn down right now if you want to come over and chill.”

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1. Larry Nassar 3. Notre Dame Women

2. NFL takes a knee 4. Houston Astros

Sports 1. World-renowned sports physician Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing more than 150 women and girls.

2. NFL takes a knee: NFL players knelt in protest or linked arms during the national anthem to highlight racial injustice and police brutality in the U.S. This drew massive criticism from Donald Trump and Americans who think politics should be kept out of sports. Critics of the critics said the opposition was racially motivated.

3. Notre Dame Women: The Notre Dame women’s basketball team upset UConn in the 2017 Final Four when Arike Ogunbawale hit a game-winning shot with one second remaining. She then hit another game-winning shot with .01 seconds left on the clock to help the Fighting Irish win its second National Championship.

4. Houston Astros: The city of Houston suffered a major natural disaster when Hurricane Harvey struck and caused mass flooding. The Astros baseball team rallied around their city and defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.

Slide: To go somewhere. “Aye, tell Barry to bring some girls and slide through.”

King: A term used by men, for other men. “Crying over a girl? Nah, lift your head up king, your snapback is falling.”

F*ckboi: Term with negative connotations towards a guy with foul intentions for women. “Chad is such a f*ckboi. He always posts shirtless selfies and will try to bang any girl who blinks at him.”

Slap: A really good song. “All Taylor Swift and Migos songs are slaps.”

Thicc: A compliment to someone’s body shape, especially the gluteus maximus. “Dang, Jett looks thicc in that male romper.”

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A&E

Home ec to fashion entrepreneurship

April 17, 2018

Then

Meghan Buckman

another thing we’re revisiting differently because unfortunately, the fashion and Social Media Editor textile industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world,” Bobo said.

Santa Rosa Junior College students Clothing is one of the main products who wished to study fashion between the found in landfills today. According to 1930s and 1970s earned a degree in home Huffington Post, the average American economics. Today, SRJC students may tossed out 81 pounds of clothing in 2016. not know this was once the backbone of This equals a total of 26 billion pounds fashion studies. of textiles ending up in landfills. Bobo Known as home economics, the explained how most clothing is poorly made concentration offered courses such and not biodegradable. She uses sustainable as clothing construction, fashion ingredients for dying clothing in her classes. merchandising, fashion design, illustration, Fashion studies uses natural methods of nutrition, dietetics, foods, money dying instead of synthetic dyes that contain management, life management, interior chemicals harmful to the environment. An design and culinary. alternative group of plant-based dyes are It wasn’t until the 1970s when home used, such as combinations of rosemary economics was changed to Family and and oak galls from oak trees, wood sorrels, Consumer Sciences. loquat leaves and avocado skins and pits.

Bonnie Panizzera, the fashion studies The new age of technology helped fashion coordinator for 35 years, is a certified studies grow to new heights. By using highhome economist. Panizzera is a 50-year tech sewing machines, students are able member of the American Home Economics to focus more on detailing. The program Association, which is now known as the recently received a donation from a clothing American Association of Family and company based in Europe, Bella Notte, with Consumer Sciences. She taught during the over 35 bolts of high end fabric. transition from home economics to fashion “Now our intent is to teach students how studies. to draft patterns, drape using mannequins Panizzera joined the SRJC faculty in like you see in Project Runway and utilize 1980 to teach interior design and fashion. components of starting a business in the It wasn’t until then that fashion studies manufacture industry,” Bobo said. and retail merchandising became a part of Former fashion design assistant theatre arts. This motion led the fashion student Christina Blade has founded her program to branch out to different areas of own fashion, Ina Nectar, that expresses study. different types of femininity. She also raises “The extensive classes provided awareness to end gender-based violence in students with more skills, clothing a partnership with the non-profit, Women’s construction classes and they learned to Wisdom Initiative. do their own alterations, which started “The fashion entrepreneurship class the manufacturing,” was what finally gave Panizzera said. me the structure to step Panizzera reflected on forward into my own “My confidence the time budget cuts left the business venture,” Blade program with only three said. Blade confronted and drive were to four sewing machines. the misconceptions She was one of many who automatically uplifted about fashion still being helped move the program outdated to “home by the skills I was along during the 2008 economics.” developing, and the recession. At the time some “You can certainly classes including fashion take some classes here atmosphere of the studies, were in danger of to improve your sewing program gave me the skills but the program being cut.

“I was trying to fight for extra encouragement lends itself to much the program when they bigger possibilities.

I needed to start wanted to cut, I showed There are a handful of them how students were different skill sets that my own business.” creating a business selling can be developed in the [items] on the internet,” -Christina Blade, SRJC department and then she said. employed in the fashion alumna Panizerra helped shift industry,” Blade said. the program’s financial Blade became inspired stability and promoted to launch her own its entrepreneurship clothing line for women potential to the SRJC. With the recession “who resonate with feminine archetypes, and budget cuts, the fashion program elegance and sensuality.” was reduced significantly to what it is “My confidence and drive were today; two certificates consisting of retail automatically uplifted by the skills I merchandising and fashion design assistant was developing, and the atmosphere resulting in 20-21 units. Students can earn of the program gave me the extra an associate degree by completing those encouragement I needed to start my own requirements. business,” Blade said.

“I wrote a lot of grants, CTE funding to Fashion studies is sponsoring a help our programs towards new machines presentation from the head of the and material. I’m very proud of what we producer program at Fibershed, Marie did, and how we changed through the Hoff. She will be teaching students a times,” Panizerra said. farm-to-cloth method of garment making Lyra Bobo, fashion program coordinator that lowers textile waste. This seminar for the past two years, teaches her students will be at 3 p.m. April 25 at Newman to connect with clothing sustainability and Auditorium. entrepreneurship.

The annual Fashion Studies Fashion “There was a focus in making your own Show titled ‘Inspirations’ will be at noon clothes and remaking your clothes; that’s on May 6 in the Bertolini Student Center.

Now

Oak Leaf archives / 1949 and 1980

Left: A woman poses at an SRJC Fashion Show in 1949. Right: A fashion feature of students on campus in 1980.

Meghan Buckman and Terry Meunruakham / Oak Leaf

Left: Brandon Diomande, 19, showing off 2017 fall fashion. Top right: Diomande wears a neon pink shirt paired with grey capri slacks and ASOS white loafers. Bottom right: Claire Ernst, 19, combines a white dress shirt with black jeans and studded booties.

A&E 11

Analogue revival

www.theoakleafnews.com

Abraham Fuentes

SRJC’S first computer

Staff Writer In the digital media age, we have access to virtually every song ever published and can store thousands of pictures in a phone, yet a small and growing culture is going back in time.

With high-profile artists publishing their albums on vinyl, Kodak reviving old film stock and more new movies filmed in 35mm instead of digital, it seems analog media is back.

Analog fans say hearing imperfections on vinyl records brings life to the track. It’s the same with photography and movies on film.

There is something alluring about capturing an image without any knowledge of the results, with only experience showing the way.

Specialty stores like Jeremiah’s Photo Corner for film photography and The Last Record Store are keeping the analog revival alive in the North Bay. Jack White, a modern artist with a passion for vinyl. His recording studio, Third Man Records, specializes in recording and publishing vinyl. Third Man Records made a turntable that played the first record in outer space.

“Our main goal from inception to completion of this project was to inject imagination and inspiration into the daily discourse of music and vinyl lovers. Combining our creative impulses with those of discovery and science is our passion,” White said.

The future of vinyl music is fueled by artists who love the medium, but local stores are doing their part.

The Last Record Store is in fact the last record store in Santa Rosa, selling music on CD, vinyl and cassette. The Last Record Store has been open for more than 30 years, relocating twice and settling at its current location on Mendocino Avenue.

Vinyl records line one side of the store and CDs the other. A small number of cassettes are available for $1 each. Visitors can choose from multiple genres of music, ranging

Abraham Fuentes/ Oak Leaf

In the modern age, analogue technology returns to renewed popularity in the forms of vinyls, Polaroids and film.

from country and classic rock to new releases.

Hoyt Wilhelm, co-owner of The Last Record Store, said, “Some days we sell more vinyl than CD. If we didn’t sell records, we would be out of business.”

The music industry is seeing this too, with most new albums including a vinyl release. The fact that Target sells Justin Timberlake’s, “Man of The Woods,” in vinyl format and markets other records online is a sign of the times in terms of supply and demand.

Target is not the first major corporation to sell new releases on vinyl. Amazon and Urban Outfitters both sell vinyl and cassettes, with Amazon giving free digital copies for every vinyl purchase.

Despite more places selling this physical format, another format is dying. Best Buy and Target plan to stop selling CDs, but Best Buy will continue to sell turntables and vinyl in store.

While physical music is seeing a resurgence in major stores, film photography is making a

SRJC’s growing digital media program Andrés Pimentel & Luke Benson Staff Writers Santa Rosa Junior College embraced its love of film with the introduction of a Mass Media class in 1968 taught by instructor John Bigby.

The class, Drama 468B, taught students to create their own films.

Bigby, now deceased, received his master’s in film communication from the University of Pennsylvania. His contribution as the media professor shaped film studies at SRJC. A film made in Bigby’s class, “The Flower,” was entered into an annual film festival at Foothill College.

The College Student Assembly then decided to award the film $200, an amount now worth approximately $1,500. This paved the way for many SRJC films to be entered into local film festivals.

Bigby remained integral to SRJC film well into the ‘80s. A 1982 Oak Leaf article revealed that Bigby expanded his other classes to encompass film.

Bigby’s Speech 42 class sought to explore film’s impacts on mass media and culture as a whole. Bigby believed that all forms of media shaped culture.

“A picture is often self-serving rather than accurate,” Bigby said.

The class was designed as a “film production workshop,” where Bigby would encourage students to produce their own films, while building a nuanced perspective on the impact of film outside of the United States.

He mentioned his love of the Australian film “My Dinner with Andre” and how it exemplifies the power of low-budget, creatordriven art. He wanted to share this perspective with his audience at SRJC.

comeback with online and small photography stores.

Film has increased in popularity, and can be seen on Instagram with pages dedicated to shooting only film. Kodak and Polaroid showcase a number of film photographers.

After Polaroid stopped producing film for its cameras, a small company called The Impossible Project bought an old facility that made the film. Polaroid later bought The Impossible Project and its facilities, renamed it Polaroid Originals and released a new Polaroid camera, the OneStep 2.

Kodak is putting more film into the hands of the consumer, adding Ektachrome and T-max 3200 to stores.

Kodak also created a new Super 8 film camera, the first in the last 40 years. A mix of film and digital media. Video being recorded in film and sound recorded digitally.

Jeremiah’s Photo Corner is located at 441 Sebastopol Ave., has a wall of cameras and film. They supply Santa Rosa Junior College with film and cameras needed for photography classes. Jeremiah is the only store that specializes in film photography.

Also Shutterbug Camera Shop, located at 3011 Santa Rosa Ave., has film although specializing in digital.

“It’s like vinyl; there is direct connection to the physicality. It never went away,” said Chris Woodcock, Santa Rosa Junior College instructor who teaches Art 19.

The class shows students how to use a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera, develop film and use a darkroom to print photographs.

“Being able to completely control everything about the development of your film was the best part,” said SRJC student Tatyana Zamarian about Art 19.

Woodcock thinks there is no way analog technology will return to its original status; digital is a more controllable format in which to take pictures. “The accessibility of digital is required for most commercial jobs,” Woodcock said.

Spotify has undeniably simplified music consumption. Phone pictures are often more reliable than film.

There is something intriguing about physical moments. This could be only nostalgia, but time will tell if the analog comeback can survive.

The modern program began when Brian Antonson was hired in 2012 as the first full-time production faculty member. Before Antonson joined the department, most of the video equipment was bulky and outdated.

Antonson described the process of creating a film program from the array of filmrelated classes that already existed.

“We were very much the new kid on the block,” he said.

Before then there were various classes across multiple departments, but in 2012 the communication studies department hired a full-time production faculty member.

Mike Traina, the department chair, teaches film appreciation and history while Antonson teaches the creation of digital media projects.

Ty Benoit, former dean, was a major advocate for the film production department.

Part of getting the program moving was securing funding.

I n this case via career and technical education and with Jerry Miller’s support.

Miller is the senior dean of Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

Miller helped secure professional equipment like the Red Digital Cinema camera, ranging from $20,000 to $50,000, which is known for such films as the “Avengers,” the “Hobbit” and the upcoming “Avatar” movies.

The program offers an avenue for all SRJC students interested in filmmaking to learn about film history and production.

Illustration by Andrés Pimentel

Abraham Fuentes Staff Writer The year, 1974. The cost, $200,000.

The purchase, Santa Rosa Junior College’s first computer.

In 1974, The Press Democrat reported SRJC as the first community college in the nation to buy the Hewlett-Packard 3000. Providing its students access to the best technology available at the time.

Santa Rosa Junior College did not own a computer prior to the purchase of the Hewlett-Packard 3000.

The computer was equipped with a 128-kilobyte memory, a printer and a magnetic tape drive. Adjusting for inflation of the original $200,000 price today would cost $1 million.

The machine was used for computer science classes and for the school’s daily functions. Before having this massive computer, SRJC sent students’ computer science homework to different schools and institutions that had the capability of running and testing the students’ programs.

With today’s technology you can write, test and debug the program.

Evelyn Osten was working at the school during the transition, according to a transcript from the SRJC archives.

“I worked on the Doyle scholarships. I had been working on those for several years and were done by hand,” Otsen said.

The process was laborious. “We would pull their classes up, then we saw and made sure they were open.

After we initialed them, punched and put the cards together, we gave them back to them and they were responsible to submit them for them to be processed and be punched into the data,” Osten said.

The process today is more streamlined. Students used to go into the office to submit applications. Now, there is no need to leave your bed to register or drop classes. Every classroom has computer access and most students use a smartphone with internet access.

As technology advances, new computers that fit in a pocket can do more than the 1974 computer that took up an entire room.

Take the Raspberry Pi for example.

It’s smaller than a phone, faster than the HP 3000 and costs less than $50.

Only time will tell where technological advances will take us in the future.

Opinion Dear future Oak Leaf adviser, 12 Y

ou may be reading one of the last Oak Leaf print editions, created during the most dramatic news year in decades by one of the most talented Oak Leaf staffs ever.

Let me unpack those three statements using one metaphor: the map is not the territory.

This concept is supposed to illustrate the difference between belief and reality. We use our own personal maps to filter the world and frame our perception of reality. Each person’s map is not the objective territory itself, but an interpretation of it, an identity, and those maps change as we age and grow.

But this metaphor can apply to so much more during this pivotal year.

When I became the adviser in 2006, the Oak Leaf was a newspaper that published a dozen times a year. The staff numbered 10 and we owned one broken camera. Over the next decade, as newspaper readership declined nationwide, the Oak Leaf added a website, videos, podcasts, livestreams, photo galleries and social media feeds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. With career technical education grants, we purchased tens of thousands of dollars of professional audio, video, camera equipment and a drone.

The Oak Leaf staff soared to a high of 40 and an average of 30, and staff members grew accustomed to winning General Excellence each year.

But it seemed journalism students needed to learn more than ever before, and there was never enough time to teach it all. So I took a year’s sabbatical in 2016-17 to plot the Oak Leaf’s future. As I toured newsrooms and top university journalism programs, the pros repeated the same message: get rid of print.

At first, I resisted. The Oak Leaf turns 90 in 2018—we can’t kill the paper now.

But eventually I faced this fact: students don’t read newsprint. They get their news from their smartphones and other

April 17, 2018

electronic devices. (In 2118, is news beamed directly to embedded brain chips?) Even if we sold enough print ads to cover costs, newspapers would wither in kiosks.

See, the digital revolution has changed the newspaper territory forever, forcing the Oak Leaf to redraw its map of how it covers and presents news. While staff members were dabbling in everything digital, they were still print centric; we needed to fully embrace this new territory to be successful.

As devastating as they were, the October 2017 fires gave us the opportunity. On the night of Oct. 8, warm Diablo winds toppled power lines and ignited 17 separate fires in Sonoma and neighboring counties.

The deadliest one, the Tubbs Fire, moved so fast from Calistoga into northeast Santa Rosa that some residents literally fled in pajamas. The firestorm blasted through whole neighborhoods, embers blowing from house to house, propane tanks and cars exploding in its path. It jumped six lanes of highway 101 and transformed the Coffey Park subdivision into an apocalyptic landscape.

Firefighters stopped the Tubbs Fire less than a mile from SRJC but the damage was done. In Sonoma County alone, 24 people died and 5,300 homes were lost.

The hills were singed black and a drive anywhere in northern Santa Rosa might lead you past rows of tilted chimneys, fields of rubble and melted cars.

The firestorm literally changed the territory, the seemingly objective reality on which we had all framed our lives.

Some 1,010 SRJC students and 61 employees lost their homes. Collectively, we had to redraw our maps. Somestill mourn all they lost and adjust to new jobs, housing and neighbors. Others saw an opportunity to reinvent their lives with less baggage and more joy. Many added elements of life’s unpredictability

and a realization of what’s important.

For Oak Leaf reporters, the fires forced them to remake maps of not only how they report, but what they covered and how they organized, edited and delivered news, all at the same time.

When the college cancelled classes and closed the campuses for an unprecedented two weeks, the Oak Leaf staff lost access to their newsroom and the college server where they kept their stories. Their first print issue, scheduled for the week of the fires, was postponed indefinitely.

Reporters must be scrappy and adapt.

A volunteer crew that had gathered in the newsroom quickly packed computers, cameras and AP Style books and set up makeshift offices wherever we could find both power and WiFi. In the first few days, a core group of eight hardcore reporters emerged and managed to produce exceptional reporting, all while working under unusual duress. Five had to evacuate from their own homes and endure shifting sleeping arrangements. Yet they dedicated themselves to covering the catastrophe, traveling to active fire zones, smoldering neighborhoods, evacuation centers and daily press conferences.

As adviser, I also reconfigured the map of my job. Boundaries between home and work dissolved as students populated a makeshift office in my living room, ate paninis and matzo ball soup and viewed the fires from my rooftop.

One evacuated student stayed in a spare bedroom; others piled into my car to travel to devastated neighborhoods.

Though I’d only known most of them for seven weeks, we bonded through three intense weeks of round-the-clock work under conditions they termed, “Annearchy.” I’m already sad that come fall, most of my fire reporting crew will have moved on to new life adventures.

The Oak Leaf fire reporters no longer limited their coverage to SRJC. Two

Anne Belden / Oak Leaf

Roberta MacIntyre, James Wyatt and Albert Gregory don N-95 masks to report on the fires.

editors worked to dispel rumors of what burned countywide, while others recorded senators, congress members and Governor Jerry Brown pledging support. They found news and feature stories wherever they looked and reported them regardless of SRJC ties.

It took a couple days to simplify and reinvent the news flow, but soon reporters were cranking out content on all media platforms. In the first two weeks, they produced 21 multimedia pieces and wrote dozens of articles and briefs. They made at least 80 Instagram, 110 Twitter and 110 Facebook posts, including livestreams of press conferences. With help from their classmates, they wrote 24 more articles in five days and pulled two all-nighters. The fire issue’s heart is all the stories reporters collected from students, faculty and staff about loss, trauma and community spirit.

After the fires, the Oak Leaf fall 2017 and spring 2018 staff members continued to be digital pioneers in not only transferring traditional print content online but in creating new forms of digital content. When the territory changed geographically and digitally, this Oak Leaf staff stepped up and

showed what kind of new maps were possible.

In 2118, you will likely face different challenges than we did in 2018. I can only imagine how the territory may have changed—is Sonoma County still lush with vineyards and apple farms, or is it a desert or concrete jungle?—along with the maps you use to perceive it. I hope your newsroom funding is solid, SRJC is free for all students and the planet you inhabit still contains the rhinos, elephants, lions and giraffes I saw on sabbatical.

Mostly, I hope you have an Oak Leaf staff that can appreciate those who came before them, be brave in their reporting and continue to reinvent the Oak Leaf of the future. And as adviser, I hope you give your students your all, which can mean instruction, advice, therapy or half your lunch, depending on the day. Whatever you do, advise them with enthusiasm, real world reporting assignments, high standards and flexible boundaries.

Sincerely, Anne Belden

Dear SRJC students of 2118,

Abraham Fuentes/ Oak Leaf

2

018 was a tumultuous year for our community, our nation and our world. We would like to inform you of the oppressions, disasters and the suffering we survived during the 100th year of this college’s existence.

This year, Santa Rosa Junior College celebrated its first century of existence.

To commemorate this incredible milestone, SRJC student media, The Oak Leaf published a print issue to be included in a time capsule for future students to read. We hope to give you a small taste of life in a 2018 SRJC students’ shoes.

The story starts with our community and the recent hardships we faced.

Devastating fires swept through Sonoma County in October of 2017.

The fires was one of the largest in

California’s history. Wildfires burned 245,000 acres and people fled for their lives. The fires claimed 44 souls and hospitalized 192 people in Northern California alone. Five thousand three hundred homes burned and around 70 percent of those were inadequately insured, making it difficult for residents to afford to rebuild.

This year marked the completion of President Donald Trump’s first year in office. He went from billionaire reality TV star to the 45th president and has captured our unwavering attention.

One of Trump’s main presidential goals is to build a wall along the United States and Mexico border.

“We are sealing up our Southern Border. The people of our great country want safety and security.

The Democrats have been a disaster on this very important issue,” Trump said.

Trump has also rescinded the DACA program and contended that there will be no deal to legalize the status of young adult immigrants, called Dreamers.

The #metoo movement has also influenced our culture this year. The movement unveiled the secrets of sexual misconduct and abuses of power in Hollywood, Washington D.C., Silicon Valley, at universities, organizations and corporations across the country.

Even Santa Rosa Junior College had its own #metoo scandal. Women (and affected men) banded together to call out bad behavior and reject the notion that victims provoke unwanted sexual advances.

On Feb. 14, 2018, a gunman killed 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. This school massacre caused communities nationwide to realize this kind of tragedy can happen anywhere. Amazingly, the young Stoneman Douglas survivors ignited a national movement to change gun laws. They organized two successful events that captured the nation.

The first was a National School

Walkout in which students and teachers across the country, including SRJC, left classrooms in solidarity for 17 minutes to commemorate the lives lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

The second, the March for Our Lives protest in Washington D.C., drew some 800,000 people and was likely the single largest day protest in the nation’s history. The surviving students might make the biggest difference yet in the drive to reduce gun violence.

The SRJC community has had its ups and downs over the last few semesters, but a couple of events stand out in particular.

A breaking story that shocked our community was the sexual misconduct allegations against the President of Academic Senate Eric Thompson while in a previous job he held almost 20 years ago at Ursuline High School.

A former student of Thompson made a Facebook post which discussed the sexual misconduct and urged for justice and prevention of any other students being similarly mistreated. The allegations were investigated but eventually dropped because of the college’s statute of limitations and different age claims of both parties.

An SRJC assistant football coach,

Logologoa Taumaloto Tevaseu, 35, was charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and two counts of felony DUI when he hit and killed a Sonoma State University student, Paulette Geronimo Quiba, 21, on Lakeville Highway.

SRJC faculty and administrators were at odds this year over stalled contract negotiations, leading faculty to boycott 100th anniversary activities and picket board meetings.

While administrators worried about looming budget deficits and declining enrollment, SRJC students expressed concern for proposed faculty salary cuts.

Our society has become consumed by social media. We thrive on recognition and consume the most drama-filled and outlandish fake news we can get our hands on.

I hope the problems plaguing our culture today will be resolved by the time you are reading this.

I expect the stigmas and stereotypes we assign to people based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender or beliefs will be a distant memory in 2118.

Sincerely, Reina Underwood of 2018

www.theoakleafnews.com

New Burbank, new name?

off around the country. Activists are pulling down Confederate flags, toppling monuments and painting over Features Editor racist murals. Whole schools, once Burbank Auditorium, home to commemorating Confederate leaders, Santa Rosa Junior College’s theater arts now have new names. program, is under renovation during But do Burbank’s wrongs warrant the school’s centennial year; this is an the removal of his name from the opportunity not only for architectural auditorium? He didn’t lead a confederate enhancements but to right a historical army and he owned no slaves. But wrong, by renaming the building in the context of “liberal” Sonoma altogether.

County, where people point to the lack The auditorium is one of many of diversity but fail to accept history of Sonoma County buildings named racism, Burbank is a perfect idol to fall. after Luther Burbank, who also We could also start by questioning lends his name to a city in the Los why his name fronts numerous local Angeles area. Locally and nationally, buildings at all. Burbank wasn’t a Santa he is considered an agricultural hero. Rosa native. He came to the North Bay Schools across the country take his from Massachusetts in 1875, bought name. Frida Kahlo massive amounts even painted him of stolen Pomo or in 1931.

Miwok land and “Luther Burbank was started a plant Burbank is famous for creating empire. a racist and leader of breeding the Shasta Daisy, In a recent Santa Rosa’s Chinese conversation, Santa Burbank Potato, Santa Rosa Plum Rosa historian Gaye removal project.” and hundreds of LeBaron referred other plant varieties. to Burbank as “a He is one of the gardener who got most revered plant lucky.” breeders and no one is arguing to rename But how did Burbank get lucky? He the auditorium because Burbank created didn’t invent the concept of selective the disgusting white blackberry. plant breeding. Communities around The auditorium needs a new name the world have selectively bred plants for because Burbank probably thought nearly 10,000 years. Burbank just had white blackberries superior for the color the power and self-serving nature to take of their skin. ownership over species and shamelessly Luther Burbank was a racist and promote them. leader of Santa Rosa’s Chinese removal More pertinently, Burbank had the project. He leveraged his local influence gall to lead Santa Rosa’s Chinese removal and heroic stature to villainize an entire project. It’s true that almost all whites in community on the basis of ethnic Sonoma County were anti-Chinese at difference. His name should not be on the end of the 19th century. campus.

“Everyone except for a few ministers This is an opportune moment for and women’s groups were simply bent renaming. The large-scale renovations to on getting the Chinese out of town,” said Burbank include the addition of two new LaBaron. classrooms and the remodeling of the But Burbank was a plants man 400-seat main auditorium. Popping off whose experiments changed the face of those name placards is relatively simple agriculture. He likely knew then what in terms of construction. most agriculturalists know now–even Currently, placards are popping if they’d never admit it: employing Julia Modell

underpaid immigrant labor is the only way our nation’s food system functions.

In the mid 1800s, thousands of Chinese immigrated to California to work in mines and lay railroads. By the 1870s there were Chinatowns in major cities along the Pacific coast.

Lebaron’s book, “Santa Rosa: A nineteenth Century Town,” said even relatively small communities, like Healdsburg, Sebastopol and Santa Rosa had Chinatowns.

In the 1870s, Santa Rosa’s Chinatown took up a couple blocks along the creek in between where D Street and the Roxy Theater now sit.

Chinese immigrants in Sonoma County played vital roles, especially when jobs became dangerous. They laid railroads. They worked agricultural fields.

They dug caves by hand for Buena Vista, Sonoma County’s oldest commercial winery. They even established Chinese businesses, including the first local laundromats, which proved very popular in Santa Rosa.

However in 1880 a recession intensified, making money and jobs tight. Desperation and xenophobia led many whites to point to the Chinese as the cause of the economic turmoil.

A group of Santa Rosans formed the Anti-Chinese League in 1886 with the explicit goal of removing all Chinese residents from Santa Rosa. “Santa Rosa: A nineteenth century town,” lists Burbank as the secretary of this committee.

The biased and bigoted local newspapers, The Santa Rosa Republican and The Sonoma Democrat, ran pieces that villainized the Chinese with horror stories and propaganda blaming them for taking the white man’s job.

The Anti-Chinese League organized a major boycott of all shops with Chinese workers. The committee hung a huge banner that read, “THE CHINESE MUST GO. WE MEAN STRICTLY BUSINESS,” across Mendocino Avenue where Exchange Bank now sits.

By the late 1880s, exclusionary methods and direct threats uprooted

Opinion 13

Courtesy of Frida Kahlo

Hopefully the plants Luther Burbank created can outgrow the mistakes he made.

much of the Chinese community. Each week papers triumphantly reported on how many Chinese residents were seen at the rail station leaving town.

“But by the fall, the headlines were, ‘Who is going to pick the hops?’ because the white people didn’t volunteer. The parallel with modern Latino labor is just huge,” LeBaron said.

Some argue renaming buildings and tearing down statues is an insignificant step in the pursuit of social justice. But the fact is, people blindly uphold Burbank as a flawless figure and there is little to no awareness of the Chinese community that played such an important role in Sonoma County.

Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. In 2018 the President is Donald Trump, whose major campaign goal was to build a wall on the border of Mexico to stop immigrants from taking “our” jobs.

Trump’s campaign ran off the same racism and xenophobia that Burbank employed in the 1880s, and it worked out pretty well for the them both.

Why do we care about the plumcot more than the railroad system Chinese labor built? How far could Burbank’s plants have spread if there were no railroads to travel on? How many underpaid immigrants worked in fields where his plants would eventually grow?

We must remember that Luther Burbank was no hero. He was a racist who also bred plants.

It would be unfair to paint Burbank

as unique in his xenophobia or antiChinese sentiments. White supremacy was the rule of the day in the end of the 19th century. “You have to be very careful looking back into history and judging based on today’s standards,” said LaBaron.

But white supremacy is by no means dead. Maybe this is because our understanding of history filtered through the white lens. Maybe it is because we can’t stand to see idols fall.

We are taking steps to architecturally bring this building into the modern day.

Can’t we also update the namesake to represent our modern values? Maybe we can name it after one of the ministers that fought against the anti-Chinese movement, which is clearly much more heroic than breeding plants.

Or we could do something unheard of and name it after someone who isn’t white and male.

On the theater arts department’s website, they describe themselves as striving to foster “a profound awareness of cultural diversity, and a deep commitment to individual education, self-worth and training.”

Burbank stripped Sonoma County of cultural diversity. In doing so, he stunted generations from truly being educated about the history of their community.

His name can live on down the street at Burbank Gardens, where hopefully the plants he created can outgrow the mistakes he made. But there is no space for his name on our campus.

Not every SRJC dollar makes sense Michael Barnes

Co-Editor-in-Chief Santa Rosa Junior College named an art gallery after the school’s fourth president, Dr. Robert F. Agrella when he retired in 2012. However, in the spring of 1996 the only art former-SRJC President Agrella brought to the school was the art of deception.

In an attempt to keep his name clean, Agrella somehow convinced the board of trustees to fork over $36,000 of the school’s budget to pay for a secret investigation into the author of anonymous letters, calling the former SRJC president a “racist” and questioning his leadership abilities.

Instead of appropriating funds to improve parking or maintain campus dorms, the school agreed to finance Agrella’s personal witch hunt into the hate-mail’s authorship , carried out by a private investigator and the campus chief of police. The pair entered offices of at least 10 instructors

after hours, lifting samples of handwriting for analysis.

The investigation resulted in the firing of faculty member Sylvia Wasson, who then sued the school in return. The board of trustees issued apologies and offered to reinstate Wasson, but she rejected their overtures and proceeded to hire a legal team.

The fiasco shook the SRJC community and was significant enough to warrant a New York Times article documenting the debacle.

The recent controversy swirling around current SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong’s rash decision to cut summer courses in an attempt to curtail a $6.5 million deficit is no doubt disappointing, but it’s far less disturbing than the reprehensible deeds of his predecessor.

Chong’s actions were unfortunate, and he deserves to be put in the hot seat for it. Despite his misstep in leadership, Chong remains an admirable leader. He hasn’t shied away from the controversy; rather he’s faced the scrutiny head on.

He issued a statement apologizing for the lapse in judgement, attended public forums lambasting his decision making, endured two votes of noconfidence in his presidency and accepted a 5 percent salary pay cut.

By owning up to his mistake and taking full responsibility for the college administration’s actions, President Chong exemplifies what it means to be a leader in a time when the leader of our own country seems predisposed to an opposite disposition on the role.

When Chong was on the receiving end of constant vitriol, he refused to throw his administrative colleagues under the bus. Colleagues who are just as complicit as Chong–if not more so–in the decision-making process concerning SRJC’s recent budget crisis.

As Chong continually makes himself available and responsive, his colleagues remain aloof and distant.

The recent summer course

Courtesy of The Press Democrat

Critics of SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong forget the attrocities of former President Robert Agrella.

snafu is an opportunity we should allow our president to learn and grow from. The SRJC community must move past the vilification of Chong and move forward together in finding amicable resolutions to the school’s issues. We owe it to Chong and to the entire SRJC

community to give our president another chance.

For the growing contingent calling for Chong’s resignation, be careful what you wish for. Chong could be far worse. He could be Agrella or Trump.

14

Sports

April 17, 2018

unfortunate, The Derkos winning tradition still thriving The hidden irony in Ian MacGregor

Deputy Sports Editor Izzy Derkos knew next to nothing about tennis when Santa Rosa Junior College Athletic Director Bob Mastin offered him the head coaching position in 1970.

Derkos was the SRJC football team’s defensive coordinator at the time and accepted the new challenge head on.

Derkos planned to introduce weightlifting and conditioning programs to the team, ideas that were foreign to tennis players at the time. “Those guys looked at me like I was absolutely insane,” Derkos said.

Two of Derkos’ top three players quit the team after one day of practice. The rest of the team banded together and stuck with Derkos.

Thirty-four years later in 2004, Derkos retired from the tennis program. His teams accumulated a record of 466 wins to 116 losses, including a run of 15 consecutive conference championships from 1988 to 2003.

SRJC produced 62 AllAmericans in tennis under Derkos’ reign and more than 80 percent of his players moved on to four-year universities. In 2016, Derkos was inducted into the SRJC Athletic Trust Hall of Fame.

Derkos is not one to boast about his accomplishments as a coach, or those of the teams he led. “The Izzy Derkos time is over,” he said. “I’m very excited to see what the future holds for this great program.”

The Bear Cubs pay tribute to

his career by playing their home matches on the Izzy Derkos Courts, hoping to honor his name by continuing the run of success that his teams experienced.

SRJC’s team has done just that this season. The women haven’t had a full roster all season, yet they’ve won seven of 12 matches despite forfeiting points in almost every one.

While the team was still in preseason play, head coach Connor Van Alstyne set forth a goal for the season. “Women are going to have a stronger campaign than in 2017,” Van Alstyne said.

His prediction rang true almost three months later. At the end of 2017, the team stood at 2-6 without a playoff berth. A year later, the team is looking ahead to the playoffs with a record of 7-5, thanks to excellent team play and hard work all season.

Second-years Elissa Papale and Mary McCallister qualified for a spot in the doubles portion at the state championships in Ojai, as did second-years Julia O’Keefe and Sandy Yang.

With the lack of players this season the men’s team struggled.

At times, they’ve had only four players due to injuries and other problems. First-year Jason Do dealt with shin splints for most of the season. “It was hard to get a full step,” Do said. “I try and play through it if I can.”

The Bear Cubs lost at least two matches due solely to a lack of players, but haven’t let it stop them from competing hard and having fun on the court this season.

Second-years Trevor Pinder and Shannon Connell have shone as a doubles team at times, including

SRJC’s first baseball state title

Archives / Oak Leaf

Top: A plaque representing the 1952 championship lies on the Santa Rosa campus.

Bottom: “Coach Cook Sypher and his Bear Cubs line up for Oak Leaf cameraman before opening of league season.”

Attila LS Gero Courtesy of Connor Van Alstyne

First-year Andres Jojoa-Ortega captures the SRJC spirit during a tournament in Modesto.

an 8-0 drubbing of Shasta College’s No. 1 doubles team at the end of February. Pinder and Connell qualified for the doubles portion of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) state championships at Ojai, Calif., on April 25-29.

The most important thing the Bear Cubs have taken away from the 2018 season is the togetherness they feel. It’s helped

Fighting to learn:

Arthur Gonzalez-Martin / Oak Leaf

A Santa Rosa Junior College combat class practices boxing on Bailey Field.

Arthur Gonzalez-Martin Staff Writer Combat sports are one of the oldest forms of self-discipline and include Karate, Taekwondo and boxing. Santa Rosa Junior College has offered some of these sports throughout the school’s history.

While some classes have died out in the past, SRJC offered different combat classes like archery, fencing, boxing, Tai Chi and Judo.

Archery classes started in 1935 as a women’s sport with a team that competed in tournaments locally and afar. The team became co-ed in the 1950s and competed

until instructor Wendy Feist retired in 2011.

Matthew Markovich, the dean of kinesiology, athletics and dance, is trying to find new instructors for many of the combat sports. However, this year the school cancelled Judo classes after instructor Destinee Tartuffe left to become a lawyer.

Some combat sports are here to stay. SRJC has offered fencing classes on and off since the 1970s.

Fencing, a combat sport originating from Italian dueling, is currently instructed by Jack Miller, who has been running the program since 2002. After being apprised by the retiring instructor, Miller left his position as an anthropology professor to take on fencing.

grow as teammates and friends.

“It’s a really good motivator on the court to have your friends behind you and supporting you,” said second-year Elissa Papale of her teammates.

The Bear Cubs have enjoyed an exciting season in 2018, and will look to carry on the Derkos winning tradition both into playoffs and into the future for this program.

A history of combative fitness classes at Santa Rosa Junior College

Currently, fencing is offered twice a week with two sessions in a single class period. Miller would like there to be a second class period to make fencing available for a broader group of students.

Despite running a class where people stab at each other with metal sticks, Miller never had any trouble with the department dean or chair about safety concerns.

Boxing has been offered on campus for the past 18 years. After an uphill battle to get the program started, boxing instructor and soccer coach Marty Kinahan says that boxing is a sport that’s more in your face than fencing.

“There was some pushback from the administrators; they didn’t want to have boxing annually.

They were worried about injury and liability,” Kinahan said.

The first four times Kinahan proposed year-round boxing classes, administrators denied his requests. But in 2000, he managed to get boxing added to the physical education program.

Now boxing is one of the most popular classes in the kinesiology department, filling nearly two classes with 50 seats available in each. Kinahan believes physical

education classes are important for students.

“It’s what makes you healthy and keeps you alive, which makes you a more productive and happier person,” Kinahan said. In the future, Kinahan wants a proper boxing ring and a competing team.

The head football coach and chair of the kinesiology department, Leonard Wagner, has a vision for SRJC combat classes in the future.

He plans to continue supporting the current combative sport classes while restarting defunct programs like Judo and Karate by finding new instructors.

To teach in the kinesiology department, instructors must have a master’s degree. “It’s a challenge to find someone with a master’s in kinesiology and who’s a [martial arts] person,” Wagner said.

Measure H funding will be allocated to improve the kinesiology building. One plan is to have two different facilities for the combat sport classes.

Fencing classes would stay in Tauzer Gym because fencers need the hardwood floor for practice.

Boxing and martial arts classes may get an open space facility.

Staff Writer Clarence ‘Cook’ Sypher led the first Santa Rosa Junior College baseball team to a state championship in 1952, but he was not their coach in the actual game. While the Bear Cubs marched on to a state championship, “coach” Sypher was commanding troops in the Korean War. Sypher left SRJC five games into his 16th season as head coach of the men’s baseball team to resume lieutenant duties at Camp Pendleton Military Base in Southern California.

Interim head coach Bob Mastin guided Sypher’s carefully picked and developed squad to a state championship against Santa Ana College.

The Bear Cubs lost the first game in the three-game series for the state title, but roared back to win the final two games of the series.

How unfortunate and ironic was it for Sypher that the only team to accomplish a championship winning season during his tenure, was achieved without his expertise.

Coach Sypher officially re-joined the team in the 1955 season. He never got the chance to coach in a state championship game himself, retiring a decade later in 1965.

Sypher was hired in the spring of 1936 as an assistant coach to Dick Blewett for football, basketball and baseball. He eventually took over as full-time head coach of the baseball and football teams the following season.

Sypher entered the Marine Corps reserve in 1933 as a private. He saw five years of active duty during World War II and the Korean War. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel while stationed in the South Pacific during the Korean War. Despite Sypher’s absence from the championship winning team in 1952, he left an unheralded legacy at SRJC. Sypher remains the most successful baseball coach in his 30-year history with the school. His legacy is forever entrenched where the Bear Cubs play baseball at Sypher Field.

The Sonoma County Junior College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, ethnic group identification, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic condition, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or sexual orientation in any of its policies, procedures or practices; nor does the District discriminate against any employees or applicants for employment on the basis of their age. This non-discrimination policy covers admission, access and treatment in District programs and activities--including but not limited to academic admissions, financial aid, educational services and athletics--and application for District employment.

Oak Leaf Volume CXXXIX Issue II

April 17, 2018

www.theoakleafnews.com

Chong will stay with pay cut Séamus Reed Staff Writer The Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees praised, chastised and ultimately stood behind the embattled SRJC president after a tumultuous 10 days and noconfidence votes by students and faculty. Chong accepted a 5 percent pay cut as part of the board’s actions yesterday.

Board President Maggie Fishman recognized Chong’s accomplishments since joining SRJC, citing Measure H and sustainability initiatives.

“Shared governance is an important pillar of the community college system. President Chong’s decision to reduce summer school was a lapse from this key collaborative concept,” Fishman said.

“He immediately accepted his mistake and has publicly addressed it,” Fishman said. “In addition he has spent the last week listening to and internalizing criticism at multiple campus meetings.”

According to Fishman, the lapse in communication included the board as well and board members attended the same meetings Chong did.

“We accept President Chong’s apology and we stand behind him,” Fishman said.

Fishman also announced the formation of a board ad hoc committee to weigh progress on the budget and shared governance for the next year.

Apologizing to the packed crowd at the Lawrence A. Bertolini Student Center, Chong acknowledged his role in the summer course cancellation scandal and outlined his plan moving forward.

The apology comes after SRJC administration’s sudden March 29 announcement of massive cuts to Summer 2018 courses, spurring a swift campus-wide backlash and resulting in a reversal from Chong and his staff.

Both the Academic Senate and the Student Government Assembly (SGA) presented their bodies’ votes-of-no-confidence in Chong to the board.

In response to the no-confidence votes, Chong said, “It’s a wake-up call for me and my staff.”

On top of his own pay cut, Chong proposed that his top administrators take a voluntary 3 percent cut and forgo their 1.56 percent pay raises that took effect this January.

With Vice Presidents Doug Roberts and Mary Kay Rudolph both retiring this summer, Chong announced that he will be transferring some of their duties to other SRJC employees, citing a need to smooth out the upcoming admin-

Bridge to success Dylan Kerzin Staff Writer

Courtesy of Steven Grover & associates

Proposed 3D image of pedestrian bridge over US Highway 101 near SRJC.

Adeira Sherpa / Oak Leaf

Santa Rosa Junior College Trustee Jordan Burns thanks members of the college community for voicing their concern.

istration change.

Chong replaced Roberts with Kate Jolley, the senior director of fiscal services, to oversee the budget.

Chong also announced that Jolley would present the proposed 2018-2019 budget to students and classified staff.

Jolley appeared before the board of trustees to make the first public presentation of the projected 20182019 budget.

“We’re not hearing that it’s going to get a lot better, but we’re not hear-

T

he city of Santa Rosa proposed construction of a pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 that would connect the Santa Rosa Junior College campus on Mendocino Avenue with neighborhoods west of the freeway.

The bridge would increase student access and alleviate parking congestion.

In a meeting on April 29 at Santa Rosa High School, architect and engineer Steven Grover presented the findings of a feasibility study for the bridge project, informing the public about site locations, goals and a timeline for completion of the bridge project.

The bridge could cross Highway 101 from Range Avenue to the SRJC lot on Bear Cub Way or from Edwards Avenue to Elliot Avenue.

Ideally, the bridge could minimize the overflow of student parking at the Junior College and potentially provide an influx of students. It aims to provide a safer and more efficient way to cross Highway 101, instead of crossing dangerous intersections and busy streets.

Students showed general support for the project as a means for transportation and ease the overcrowding in the parking lots on campus.

“I don’t personally ride a bike, but parking is a major issue we can all agree on here. I think a pedestrian

ing that it’s going to get worse,” Jolley said.

Her budget predicts a $6.5 million deficit in the coming year.

The advisory President’s Consultation Council (PCC), which includes student, faculty and staff leaders, will hold discussions about the budget and post updates online.

Chong promised that he and the council will review the school’s shared-governance process, responding to many requests from the SGA and All Faculty Association (AFA).

Members of the faculty union also

spoke during the public comments section, offering their take on the current budget deficit and the shared government process.

Dr. Brenda Flyswithhawks said, “Although there is much talk about shared governance, there is not much listening being experienced and even less action being taken. The ultimate betrayals for faculty and staff are when we feel devalued by the district and especially when the board of trustees appears to be oblivious to it all.”

bridge would definitely take away from the overflow,” said John Morton, 23, natural resource management major.

Students who bike to school especially showed interest in a safer, more direct route to commute to school.

“It could be helpful for students who live close by and want to bike, but are unable to due to the current routes they have to ride to school on,” said SRJC student Randy Carreno, 21.

“I ride my bike to school and I would totally use the bridge if and when its built.”

SRJC Sustainability Committee CoChair Sara Jones said, “The bike bridge is a point of access to college for many students. Getting a ride, taking a bus, or buying a car can be a significant deterrent to attending college for many students.”

She explained how a recent study showed student, faculty and staff commuting caused 80 percent of the college’s carbon footprint.

Students alone caused 67 percent of the emissions and he bike bridge could put a dent in this number.

“Bicycles are comparatively inexpensive to buy and run and can be much more efficient than taking a bus,” Jones said.

“With half of Sonoma county stu-

dents attending SRJC and a large percentage living within a few miles of campus, biking is an option. It also makes SRJC an ideal center to start a community bicycle network.”

The infrastructure plan was originally proposed in 2007 and underwent a study of the planned construction sites to evaluate the effect on the landing areas where the bridge would be built. An current environmental study must be completed before the project can enter the design approval phase.

In 2010, the feasibility study was completed and accepted by the city council.

The meeting on April 29 was to inform the public on the timeline of the project and potential benefits it could bring to the community, especially students who attend SRJC and Santa Rosa High School, both of which are across Highway 101.

Currently the city is in the project approval and environmental document (PA&ED) phase. Caltrans must approve environmental clearances.

This phase is set to conclude by the end of Spring 2019.

The Edwards-to-Elliot site would cost roughly $10-13 million. The Range-to-Bear Cub Way site is projected to cost 20-25 percent less than that.

2

News

April 17, 2018

Meet the candidates for SGA elections Dylan Kerzin and Abraham Fuentes

Editors-in-Chief

Brandon McCapes and Michael Barnes Section Editors Managing Editor | Rachel Edelstein A&E Editor | Jett Williams Features Editor | Julia Modell News Editor | Kevin Johnson Opinion Editor | Chelsea Wood Sports Editor | Matthew Wreden Deputy Sports Editor | Ian MacGregor Multimedia Editor | Jose Gonzalez Social Media Editor | Meghan Buckman Co-Photo Editor | Dakota McGranahan Co-Photo Editor | Adeira Sherpa Spanish Editor | Jose Gonzalez Staff Writers Reina Underwood, Taylor Marek Seprish, Abraham Fuentes, Dylan Kerzin, Pedro Braga, Arthur Gonzalez-Martin, Attila Laszlo, Lenita Marie Johnson, Tamayo David, Andres Pimentel, Terry Meunruakham, Jennifer Do, Luke Benson, Sémus Reed Layout Team Devin Schwarz, Rachel Edelstein, section editors and editors-in-chief Centennial Director Chelsea Wood

Contact Newsroom: 707-527-4401 Ads Office: 707-527-4254 Adviser: Anne Belden: 707-527-4867 abelden@santarosa.edu Peer Assisted Learning Specialist Devin Schwarz EMAIL oakleafstaff@gmail.com Advertising Manager Meghan Buckman oakleaf-ads@santarosa.edu

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR We appreciate your feedback. Send letters to oakleafstaff@gmail.com or to the Oak Leaf office. Letters should include first and last name and be limited to 300 words. Letter may be edited for style, length, clarity and taste. Libelous or obscene letters will not be printed.

Web Content

Online Exclusives In 2017 we decided to transition ourselves into the modern era by expanding our online content and pulling back on our print production. Eventually the Oak Leaf will become an online-only publication.

This exclusive, digital content can be found daily at www.theoakleafnews.com

Staff Writers It’s election week at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Elections for next year’s Student Government Assembly (SGA) began midnight April 16 and end at 11:59 p.m. April 20. Santa Rosa Junior College students can vote using the link in the bottom left corner of their student portal under the “Student Life” section.

Candidates for contested positions, including student body president and vice presidents of student health and diversity affairs, spoke at a gathering at noon last Wednesday on the quad.

New-kid-on-the-block Riley Shepherd joined current student leaders Eduardo Osorío Juárez and Dori Elder to deliver speeches in the race for the presidency.

Juárez works with departments on campus, such as student equity, students affairs and the noncredit department, to provide support to the student body population. Juárez also works with the organization Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx De Aztlán (MEChA).

“I have been here for a year and half and I have managed to make good connections with the department leaders here,” Juárez said. “I have noticed that we like to hear about sustainability. A sense of community and school spirit, and I would like to work towards accessibility, towards the students success. I have gained a lot from SRJC—it’s time to give back.”

Juárez wants to make SRJC a safer and healthier institution.

“You notice things have been going on with summer schedule almost being cut and the administration not being transparent.

I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to attend these meetings and give my opinion and the student perspective,” Juárez said.

“I enjoy being in these meetings; it allows us to continue to give the student perspective and keeping people accountable and putting them in check because we do have administrators that do make an unbelievable amount on salary.”

Presidential candidate Dori Elder, current vice president of student life, is currently working on prerequisite coursework to transfer to a four-year university.

Elder is a deaf studies major and active in several clubs.

Elder explained that student housing is close to her heart after recently becoming displaced from her home.

“I saw some things happening on campus that I wanted to change,” Elder said. “One of them is student housing—it’s really important. When you think of a student that is homeless or housing insecure, you have a vision in your head and that vision doesn’t look like me, but I became homeless four weeks ago and I had to deal with that.”

Elder said will continue to hold Santa Rosa Junior College

President Dr. Frank Chong accountable, so situations like the attempt to cut summer classes don’t happen again.

“It’s really important for me as a student body president. I would hold the college’s administration accountable for their actions. If students were sitting at the table, on the day that decision was made, that email would have never gone out. It’s really important that students have a voice,” Elder said.

Shepherd said his lack of SGA experience gives him a new perspective for SRJC. His main goals for the school is to become more inclusive towards people with disabilities and to improve the sense of community.

Shepherd, who has a friend with a gluten allergy, commented on the lack of gluten-free options in the cafeteria.

“I want to see my friend be able to eat at the cafeteria, because we do not have gluten-free options,” Shepherd said. “I want wheelchair access in Emeritus. This should be basic.”

Shepard also wants more events, like the one on last Valentine’s day.

“On Valentine’s Day there was a jumpy house. That was rad,” he said. “I want more of that.”

Jenny Patterson-Kerr is running for the position of vice president of student health. She explained her personal experience on how health impacts one’s life.

“Whether it is not being food secure, worrying about the cost of rent, stressing about the balance of going to school, having a family and working, as well as having physical and mental challenges, I have experienced it all,” Patterson-Kerr said. “I know how

sometimes simply getting out of bed can be a major feat.”

Patterson-Kerr wants to support students in their pursuit of learning in the healthiest way possible. A former public school teacher and mental health counselor, she has witnessed how health can impact learning.

Angie Carretero is PattersonKerr’s main competition. She aims to make a major commitment to SRJC by serving as a liaison for important student issues.

“I plan to promote wellness, awareness, and create support of and find discounts for your individual aspirations toward better health and wellness,” Carretero said. “One of my plans is to get a vegan/vegetarian vending machine for our cafeteria from Amy’s Kitchen. I am no stranger to student health issues; I have a background in HIV/AIDS outreach, nutrition and weight management and traditionalized Native American wellness talking circles.”

Carretero said she has a commitment to serve, represent, create opportunities in health, promote awareness and keep office hours in support of advocating and listening to students concerns.

There are two candidates for SGA vice president of diversity: Mark Murakami and Stephannie Starr.

Murakami, who is in his third year at SRJC, has worked at different SRJC institutions like

Health Occupations Preparation And Education Program (HOPE) center and on the AmeriCorps Health and Wellness.

His main goals are to increase inclusivity and create a new safe space.

“I’ve been sorely disappointed by the lack of resources formally dedicated by the college to the visibility, engagement, health, and voice of students like me,” Murakami said.

“We deserve a college that provides more than just a few safe spaces: we deserve a college that is itself a brave space.”

Stephannie Starr is seeking reelected in her current position as SGA Vice President of Diversity for a second year. She wants to increase the awareness of students on how they are represented.

“I believe that every student should be able to see themselves represented in the programming, staff, and administration available here,” Starr said.

She aims to help students with struggling mental health.

“I am committed to ending mental health stigmas among our college students. Self-care strategies and services, essential during and after the fires, are needed still,” Star said.

The positions of SRJC Student Trustee, Executive VP of Petaluma, VP of Advocacy, VP of Sustainability and Director of Clubs Petaluma are currently uncontested. Five positions remain without candidates; the soonto-be- elected SGA can appoint interested students when it takes over this summer.

Additional reporting by David Tamayo.

www.theoakleafnews.com

Chong’s mea culpa

News

3

Brandon McCapes

The campus community questioned the motives of the decision; some said it was a demonstration of political might amid strained faulty Co-Editor-in-Chief salary negotiations and others said it showed After arguably his roughest week as Santa how out of touch the administration is with Rosa Junior College president, Dr. Frank Chong students.

Chong said the administration’s sole motivareflected on the now-reversed summer cuts plan, tion was to address the projected budget deficit. the Academic Senate’s no-confidence vote and “I just think with the stress of trying to get to the college’s budget deficit, saying his adminisa better place with the budget, there was a lapse. tration had some big changes to make.

It was a costly lapse, not just for me but for [stuStudents, faculty and staff reacted in outrage dents],” he said. after Senior Vice President Mary Kay Rudolph’s The SRJC president and superintendent also March 29 announcement that the majority of said his administration has done a poor job planned summer courses would be cut to save communicating the severity of the crisis to the $2 million to offset a projected $6.5 million budcommunity, and that the school had become too get deficit. Chong sent a campus-wide email the “top down.” next day that suggested the decision would be Director of Fiscal Services Kate Jolley, who reversed. replaced Senior Vice President of Finance Chong announced a definitive reversal of Doug Roberts as chief budget overseer followthe decision in an email following his meeting the cuts scandal, is scheduled to deliver ing with the advisory President’s Consultabudget presentations at the Board of Trustees tion Council (PCC), which includes memand Academic Senate meetings this week, acbers from campus governmental bodies, cording to Chong. including student government.

“I’m doing a reset with our The president, who spent a budget analysis and our budweek fielding questions and get person,” Chong said. “So comments from an angry and Kate Jolley will now be in confused campus community, “What’s the best way charge of the budget.” struck the same conciliatory to reduce the budget Chong said he made the tone when he spoke with The decision after talking to facOak Leaf April 6. where it doesn’t hurt ulty who didn’t have faith in “At some point, we have to students?

I don’t Roberts. stop storming and get to the Community members have real issues,” he said. know that there’s accused Roberts and Ru“We have a $6.5 million defia way to do that. ” dolph, who are retiring this cit we have to address, and we year, of pushing the agenda honestly thought summer was -Dr. Frank Chong , through senior management. a way. We didn’t know it would Chong denied this claim. have such an adverse impact president of SRJC “They had input, but ultion students, obviously. When mately I made the decision. the firestorm came around When you are so-called ‘onthe ill-conceived decision, we the-top,’ you have to take the heat.” heard from the students and faculty, and we baThe Academic Senate voted to pass a no-consically reversed the decision immediately.” fidence resolution for Chong, Rudolph and RobStudents held a sit in outside Chong’s office erts last week. last Monday to protest the summer cuts.

Andrés Pimentel/ Oak Leaf

President Dr. Chong attends the board of trustees meeting. He will accept a 5 percent pay cut and ongoing reviews in response to his unpopular attempt to cancel a majority of Summer 2018 classes.

The SGA voted to present a similar resolution to the Board of Trustees today. The board will assess Chong’s leadership in closed session at their monthly meeting tomorrow.

Chong didn’t argue the Academic Senate’s noconfidence vote.

“I think the no-confidence vote is valid,” he said. “I accept it, and I appreciate the Academic Senate giving me the opportunity to try and correct course.”

The Student Government Assembly (SGA) passed a similar measure April 9. President Evelyn Navarro will present the finalized resolution to the board tomorrow.

Although calls for Chong’s termination have circulated in faculty and staff email chains, the majority of faculty and staff members expressed they were ready to embrace the president after last week’s “paradigm shift.”

The president said the school has tough decisions to make, but restated his commitment to run SRJC transparently.

Chong said attempts to increase enrollment rates, which determine the school’s budget, have failed over the last four years.

Potential students have to balance attend-

ing the JC with the opportunity of working in a booming Sonoma County, Chong saidaccording to Chong. The county’s unemployment rate is only 3 percent at a time when cost of living is skyrocketing.

“If we’re not going to cut summer school, what are we going to cut? The reality of the story I’m trying to tell the college community is that with the fires and, with the changing demographics, the number of full-time students is dropping.

We’re acting like a larger college but we’re really a smaller college.”

The administration is considering alternative measures to address the budget, but they all involve making cuts to classes or personnel. Chong said he’s looking to streamline the administration, which has about 100 full-time employees and makes up 11 percent of the school’s budget.

He warned that there may not be an easy answer to solving the budget crisis and policies to address the deficit may negatively affect some students.

“What’s the best way to reduce the budget where it doesn’t hurt the students?” Chong said.

“I don’t know that there’s a way to do that.”

The BSU is alive, but is it growing?

Dakota McGranahan/ Oak Leaf

Umoja Team founders Byron Reaves and Regina Mehiri pose for a picture before being called to the dance floor for the “Cha-Cha-Slide” at a Black Student Union (BSU) dance this semester.

Lenita Marie Johnson Staff Writer The Santa Rosa Junior College Black Student Union (BSU) has been in existence since the late 1960s. Throughout the years its mission has been to unite the AfricanAmerican student body.

According to an October 1968 Oak Leaf issue it wasn’t until after 1968 that the BSU was even started. Initially in 1968, a constitution for a proposed Black Student Union was rejected by a vote of the Inter-Club Council on September 24. A two-thirds majority was needed to pass the constitution, and the vote was 10-9 against.

Black student leader, John Cark, debated the issue with ASB President Ralph Leef, who claimed the BSU would be a segregated club, while Mr. Clark stated the club would be a social organization which would voice the opinions of black students.

The article further states that a “Recall Petition” was implemented immediately after the ICC meeting. Faculty member Mr. Harrington, along with several black SRJC students, requested a copy of the Associated Students’ Constitution from the student activities office and proceeded to circulate a petition to recall Leef.

On Sept. 27, 1968 a petition with 518 signatures was delivered to student activities office. About 350 signatures were needed to force a recall election.

A roll-call vote from all ICC members was taken on the acceptance of the Black Union Constitution. Again, a two-thirds majority was needed for it to pass. The vote was 16-9 against, with one member choosing to abstain. Again, the motion to pass the constitution failed.

“We are a club that believes in not equality but equity. And believe we can gain equity by holding events of dialogue, protest and most importantly educating ourselves,” the mission statement said. “We hold forums, fundraisers and educational seminars for high school and college students, and other events—we are firm believers in the Martin Luther King, Jr. quote, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’”

According to current BSU President Dyonna Johnson, throughout the years the mission has been to unite the African American student body.

SRJC English professor Dr. Michael Hale and history professor Andre Larue have been long-time BSU advisors. Hale said “BSU is a vital institution to colleges nationally for leadership development. “[BSU] organizes events that have a broad affect. Dyonna is just like any president— she faced challenges institutionally and personally, I think she’s grown by doing things outside her reach. Black History Month was a huge success,” Hale said.

“I am extremely proud of her,” says her mother Regina Mahiri. She is an administrative assistant in SRJC’s Student Equity department and an UMOJA team member. “Often times our kids are not being completely educated about themselves or their culture. She’s definitely developed her leadership and communication skills in this role.”

According to the SRJC library archives, the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party was instrumental in the creation of the BSU, on campus. One member of the BSU who has recently brought the organization to the local and national forefront, is TylerAvery Lewis.

Earlier this month the Rohnert Park native was named Miss Sonoma County, the first African-American to secure the title in the competition’s history.

Lewis is still flying on cloud nine after the competition, and so is everyone at the SRJC who knows about her win. As they say, this news has “gone viral.”

Another notable alumnus is 2014’s BSU president Elias Hinit, who was very popular among all students. Hinit coordinated many

events and encouraged students of African descent to join the club. Hinit, of Eritrean descent, went on to earn the distinction of being the first African-American to deliver the valedictorian speech at SRJC. He is now on the leadership team of the BSU at UC Berkeley.

Recent BSU member LaReva Miles is an SRJC student in digital filmmaking with a background in journalism. “The BSU history has been one with effective leaders and the challenge is to make it strong as we go into the future,” Miles said.

Damion Strong, recent BSU president, proved a controversial leader at times. Miles noted that Strong’s leadership style was often questioned and considered “mildly abrasive.”

Dyonna Johnson, the current BSU President, is a charismatic leader focused on justice. “A problem with the BSU right now is that not many students show up for the meetings and they don’t last long. After a while it seems almost pointless,” Johnson said.

“You get desensitized when no one shows up,” said Johnson. She added that the group wasn’t dealing with the issues on campus and in the community at large.

“We need to be dealing with the issues Black and Brown students are facing within the public schools and in the community.”

“My goal is to look at our history from slavery, to the civil rights movement, to the present. Looking at the ups and downs has been part of my growth,” said Johnson.

Additional reporting by Dylan Kerzin

4

Sports

Club Capoeira

Student brings Brazilian dance fighting to campus Matthew Wreden Sports Editor

Matthew Wreden / Oak Leaf

Professora Sarará, Capoeira mestre (left), and club leader Curumin WinterHare observe students as they practice Capoeira, a Brazilian fighting style.

C

apoeira is a story of celebration and the ability to express oneself.

These abilities can be found in Santa Rosa Junior College’s newest martial arts club.

For 20-year-old kinesiology major Curumin Winter-Hare, Capoeira is not just a dance or a defense; it’s her gift. This year, Winter-Hare started a Capoeira group at Santa Rosa Junior College to share her gift with fellow students and create a space to do what she loves.

Winter-Hare’s love for Capoeira began when she was just 6 years old. Her “mestre,” or teacher, came to her elementary school and gave demonstrations to the classroom.

“I just instantly fell in love with it,” Winter-Hare said. “All of my friends dropped out and I stayed with it.”

After high school, she took a year and half off from school to travel to Brazil and learn more about Capoeira.

During her month-long trip she got in-touch with the culture and learned to train as hard as she could.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art, developed in Brazil by enslaved Africans nearly 500 years ago. These slaves would often escape and take refuge in runaway camps, called quilombos, deep in the Amazon jungle.

When Winter-Hare returned, she relocated to Santa Rosa from Humboldt and enrolled at SRJC. Her mestre advised her to begin her own club on campus.

During this year’s club fair, she set out to inspire students with the art of Capoeira.

“I was able to get at least 25 to 30 signatures to sign up,” she said. “Once the class started we had a solid five members come that are dedicated.”

Gaby Vargas, a 42-year-old student at Tone body fitness said, “Taekwondo

April 17, 2018 is just about getting points to the head highest rank in Capoeira, nobody can call and body. There is a lot more discipline one a Mestre. Only the Mestre can assign in other martial arts. You get to express the rank a capoeirista can get. There are yourself more in Capoeira.” four degrees of Capoeira Mestres: first A typical class consists of warming up degree Mestre gets a white and green with kicking and escape drills. Then they colored belt; second degree mestre – white move on to partner drills and acrobat and yellow; third degree Mestre – white movements up and down the room. After and blue; Grand Mestre – white. about an hour of training they move onto Winter-Hare takes what she’s learned a cool down with stretching and music. and applies it to her club.

Vargas has already received a third “I’ve been training so long that I degree for his black belt. can teach beginner classes well. What “I still have to protect myself we do at Tone is more advanced. I because the kicks simplify it,” she said. are coming, Professora Sarará, but it is a lot the Capoeira instructor slower. It’s truly at Tone, has studied “There is a lot more a conversation Capoeira since she discipline in other between two was 19. Sarará said her people.” martial arts. You get brother brought her to In Capoeira there a class once and she has to express yourself are five different been in love since. rankings.

Each For 21-year-old SRJC more in Capoeira.” student starts out student Jacob Beal, as a Aluno. They Capoeira is something - Gaby Vargas, a have a belt around that always interested 42-year-old Capoeiria him. their waist with either a green, green “I was also at the student and yellow, yellow, club fair trying to get yellow and blue. some signatures and I Then they graduate saw her booth across to a Graduado. This the way and wanted is where they can to sign up,” he said. begin giving lessons to new kids about “Curumin is very good at being a peer Capoeira. Usually having a blue belt. and an instructor. It’s just a very fun thing After finishing your second student to do.” form, you become a Formado. A Winter-Hare hopes to continue Formado can assist the head instructor. her club and spread Capieroa all over They have a green belt. The second to last Sonoma County. She plans to transfer to form is a Professor. This is where they a four-year university soon to pursue a start teaching their own classes. kinesiology degree.

The last form is a Mestre. A capoeirista Classes are held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays can be recognized as Mestre only by and Thursdays at Tone-Pilates, Dance a Capoeira community. As this is the and Yoga on Ross Street in Santa Rosa.

Mayfield puts on show in brother’s honor Ian MacGregor Deputy Sports Editor

Karim Mayfield had a goal in mind when he put on the Battle in the Ballroom April 7 at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel.

“I’m just looking to put on a good show and get as much media coverage for my brother as I can,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield’s brother, Shaleem Tindle, was shot and killed by BART police in Oakland on Jan. 3. Tindle was 28.

Mayfield and his brand “Hard Hitta Promotions” put on a show in his honor. The card featured five fights, four of which ended in knockouts.

The crowd was electric from the start. The audience was treated to quite a show, as the night got off to an emphatic start in the first fight.

Andres Salas vs. Tamis Long San Francisco-based fighter Andres Salas, took on Inglewood, California’s Tamis Long, in a heavyweight battle of North vs. South. Salas poured it on from the start, throwing combinations and pummeling his opponent. The referee had no choice but to stop the fight after just over a minute, awarding Salas with a TKO victory.

Salas improved to 2-0 in his professional career with his victory, and paid his respect to Long after the fight.

“He’s durable, he’s tough,” Salas said.

“My big thing was to come in there and let him know what’s up, and that’s what happened.”

Lennard Davis vs. Julio Rizo The second fight featured junior welterweights. Lennard Davis represented Oakland and took on Julio

Rizo, from San Jose. The first round was back and forth, with both fighters dealing heavy. Davis stunned Rizo with a massive uppercut at the end of the round, and Rizo was clearly rattled. Davis kept attacking throughout the second round, and the referee stopped the fight and awarded him a TKO victory with just under 10 seconds left in the second round.

Ricardo Pinell vs. Enrique Gallegos The third fight featured the hardest hit of the evening, as Ricardo Pinell uncorked a right hook that knocked Enrique Gallegos to his knees at the beginning of the second round. The bay area native Pinell won the lightweight fight over his Oregon-based opponent via TKO and had the crowd on their feet the whole time. A “justice for Shaleem” chant broke out in the intermission between the third and fourth fights.

Sean Gee vs. Willie Shaw The penultimate bout featured welterweights Sean Gee and Willie Shaw. Gee hails from Portland, Oregon and drew the wrath of the crowd who clearly favored the undefeated bay area native Shaw. Many audience members sported “Will ‘the Thrill’ Shaw” t-shirts and each time Shaw connected with a punch a roar echoed throughout the arena.

Gee fought defensively, tying Shaw up and clinching whenever he could.

Neither fighter pulled away, and they were clearly winded entering the final round. A minute into the sixth round, Gee dropped his hands, taunting Shaw and daring him to attack. Shaw obliged, unloading a combination of hooks, jabs and uppercuts. The ref stopped it one minute and 20 seconds

Matthew Wreden / Oak Leaf

Ricardo Pinell (left) connects with a left hook against Enrique Gallegos (right) in the first round of their bout. into the round, giving Shaw the victory via TKO. Shaw improved to 6-0 in his career with his win. “You just gotta be a technician,” Shaw said. “He can clinch all he wants, but I could tell he was starting to get frustrated.”

Karim Mayfield vs. Gaku Takahashi The main card pitted the San Francisco native Mayfield against Gaku Takahashi, of Los Angeles.

The welterweights were neck and neck all fight, trading blows and tiring each other out. The fight went the full eight rounds. After Mayfield

threatened to end it early, Takahashi settled in and used his height advantage to sprinkle jabs in while staying mobile.

Going into the seventh round, it was tough to discern who was in the lead. Mayfield quickly put any doubts to rest, connecting with big shots over the top of the taller Takahashi’s defense. The last minute of the eighth round almost caused a riot, the crowd in full throttle. Both fighters put in their final bids for knockout but the final bell rang and they retreated to their corners. Af-

ter deliberation, the judges awarded Mayfield the unanimous decision victory by scores of 77-74, 77-75 and 77-75.

Mayfield briefly celebrated his victory but turned his focus towards addressing the crowd. “This is a beautiful audience, good look,” he said.

“All races and all classes of people all in one group.” He kept his speech short and sweet and concluded with a heartfelt tribute to his late brother.

“I love you little bro, this is all for you,” Mayfield said.

Opinion

www.theoakleafnews.com

5

EDITORIAL

Gun control: Not the only solution G

uns are an easy target for activists. They’re loud, scarylooking and they account for just over 70 percent of multiple homicides. But the issue of school shootings stems less from guns, and more from a lack of resources for students struggling with mental illness.

On March 24, thousands of students across the country participated in March For Our Lives, a protest that took aim at the NRA, politicians and the lack of effective, comprehensive gun control in America.

Speakers lambasted the corrupt politicians who bowed to SecondAmendment-loving campaign donors and voted against their morals. Protesters held signs condemning American gun culture, ownership and violence. Moments of silence were held.

Tears were shed.

A day earlier, 23-year-old Mark Conditt triggered a homemade explosive device that killed himself and ended a 19-day terror spree in Austin, Texas. Conditt had killed two, injured five others and incited fear all across Texas. All without firing a single bullet.

This isn’t to say that we don’t need better gun control, but targeting guns alone misses the root cause of the issue. These violent outbursts are more easily executed with guns, but this form of gun violence is a symptom of the lack of structured support and awareness we have for mental health issues in America.

Mental illness is the common thread that ties mass shootings and suicides

together. Almost 60 percent of mass shootings are conducted by someone who was diagnosed with or showed signs of a serious mental illness. And 90 percent of suicide victims suffer from mental illness.

Mass shootings are the most visible instances of gun violence, often with nationwide coverage and ripple effects through the worlds of politics and social media activism, but only about 1 percent of gun deaths are part of shootings involving four or more people. Conversely, about 60 percent of gun deaths are suicide.

Prying the guns from these people’s hands will not stop the sickness afflicting their minds. Almost anything can be used as a weapon in the hands of a determined person, simply removing a person’s access to one kind of weapon won’t stop them from picking up another.

After what came to be known as the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in which 35 people were killed during a mass shooting in Tasmania.

Australia introduced the world’s most effective gun buyback program.

Australians sold 640,000 prohibited firearms to the government and handed over 60,000 non-prohibited firearms. More than 700,000 weapons in total were taken off the streets.

Research shows that the buyback program reduced the number of guns among citizens by as much as 20 percent.

Australia’s buyback program is often cited by gun control advocates in the U.S. as a solution for

our mass shooting epidemic, yet other voices will quickly counter that gun culture runs too deep in America, and the sheer number of guns on the streets (more than 300 million) makes buybacks an unrealistic solution.

And worse, our society’s stigmatization of mental health disorders and lack of mental health care makes progress paralyzingly slow.

Some on the right, including President Trump, have suggested arming teachers to solve the recent

swell in school shootings. They say that the only way to stop a shooter is a good guy with a gun. But why do we let our students struggle with mental health issues until they become shooters? And why do we let the vast majority of non-violent students suffering from mental health conditions suffer needlessly?

Schools should be armed, but not with guns. To curb school shootings, schools must be armed with therapists, counselors and staff members trained to recognize students suffer-

I came to the United States when I was 8. I arrived with nothing, to a place I knew nothing about and a language I didn’t know. My first day of school was in the second semester of third grade. The principal welcomed me, gave me a tour and made me feel safe.

I attended school, learned English and successfully graduated from high school as student body president. After three years of community college, I’m on track to earn an associate’s degree in journalism.

Ever since Trump was elected president, I’ve feared I won’t be able to fulfill my dream of becoming a journalist.

More than 800,000 DACA recipients live in fear of what will happen after their protection from deportation expires.

Santa Rosa Junior College serves around 1,500 DACA students whose lives are now in jeopardy, despite SRJC adopting a “sanctuary campus” status.

Since the beginning of his campaign, Trump has threatened to reIllustration by: Julia Modell peal DACA. When Trump entered the presidency in 2017, he granted Congress an extension to act on a DACA they are not ICE. I now look through the deal before March 5, 2018. peephole before opening the door.

Nothing happened. Congress did not The stress of worrying about some- act or even make a proposal. Nada. thing happening to me and my family “Democrats don’t really want it, they and not knowing when it will, makes me just want to talk and take desperately feel uneasy all the time. needed money away from our military,” I feel like I’m living life on a Ferris Trump tweeted on April 2. wheel. One day, I’m on top of the world Without DACA or a permanent fix and the next I fear being sent back to the such as the DREAM Act, thousands place I was born. A place I know nothing of lives remain in limbo. Recipients about. don’t come here by themselves, they DACA (Deferred Action for Child- are brought as children by their parents hood Arrivals) has given me the oppor- seeking better education and financial tunity to pursue an education and the security. They come seeking the Amerimotivation to strive for more. It erased can dream. years of fears of deportation.

Many DACA recipients come from

backgrounds where their parents struggle to put food on the table. They come from countries where the government is corrupt and people are killed by drug cartels at an alarming rate.

Deporting thousands of Dreamers is a waste of time. The U.S. benefits from Dreamers, who are doctors, lawyers, educators, journalists and community leaders; people who can and will change the world. Deporting them will hurt the U.S. immensely.

Undocumented Immigrants contribute more than $11.69 billion a year.

Repealing DACA would also hit the U.S. government by deporting taxpayers.

I am one of the 800,000

Anonymous Contributing Writer I was eating breakfast on April 2 when I saw on my phone that President Donald Trump tweeted “DACA is dead.” Anger and fear grabbed ahold of me. I felt lost and hopeless.

That day has haunted me since. Every day I go out to the streets in fear of being stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcment. When a white van drives by, my first instinct is to look inside for ICE agents. I stare at people in uniforms and check their badges to make sure

Mathias Wasik / Flickr.com

Students and teachers protest in record numbers for sensible gun control, but limiting access to guns is only a Band-Aid for pervasive mental health issues. Schools need to be armed with therapists and trained staff, not more guns in order to protect students.

ing from serious mental illness, and be able to reach out to these students before they reach the breaking point.

A broader view must be taken to address the epidemic of school shootings. Guns may be the hardest hurdle to overcome because of the right’s entrenched political ideology, but focusing on the support systems in place for people struggling with alienation, depression and suicidal or homicidal thoughts will do far more for these people than taking away their access to firearms ever will.

I have lived in this country for the past 13 years. I’ve adopted the culture, the environment and identify with the Americans around me. I have grown to be someone who cares about America because of all the opportunities it has given me, such as education, a better home and opportunities to make a good life for myself.

During my stay here in the U.S. I have also given back to my community. I’ve volunteered as a youth coach for three years, assisted in the shelters during the North Bay fires and worked with kids in an after school program.

DACA recipients are culturally “One day, I’m on top and educationally “A potential $60 billion loss in tax of the world and the American. They pay revenue to the fedown way, connext I fear being sent their eral government and tribute to the econ$280 billion hit to omy and contrary back to the place I economic growth to popular belief, was born .” over 10 years,” said don’t live off “govIke Brannon, a visiternment handouts.” ing fellow at the Cato DACA has proInstitute, a conservamoted educational tive research group. and employment We need to give Dreamers a path to outcomes. It has been a major driver of citizenship to complete their goals. We economic growth. are not criminals. We are required to go The end of DACA is the end of hope. through background checks before we It’s the end of Dreamers and the beginare even accepted for DACA. We can do ning of a nightmare for an estimated the same for amnesty.

800,000 people.

DACA-eligible, undocumented imIf DACA vanishes, my dreams of bemigrants brought here as children, coming a journalist will probably vanish trusted the government with their per- with it. I want to live a better life, imsonal information in exchange for work prove my community and have a chance permits and a reprieve from deporta- to make my dreams a reality. If I am sent tion. They think of themselves as Ameri- back to the place I was born, none of this cans and want to believe the protection will be possible and what I’ve accomDACA provided won’t suddenly be plished thus far will be for nothing. Now yanked away. multiply that by 800,000.

6

Features

April 17, 2018

Roseland’s street soldier Michael Barnes

pletely,” Chaparro says.

while maintaining its unique identity.

Sanchez-Strawbridge, once a gang member from Santa Rosa’s South Park neighborhood, went on to earn a Master’s degree from USC in educational leadership and ethnic studies. After spending time as a freelance photojournalist, he became the social media manThese attributes stood out to Santa ager for Homeboy Industries, a Los AnRosa Mayor Chris Coursey when se- geles-based company that provides hope, lecting Roseland’s community advi- training and support to gang-involved sory board member. “Danny is young, and previously incarcerated men and enthusiastic and he’s engaged with women. He credits his time with Homethe community,” Mayor Coursey says. boy Industries as a real turning point in “Danny is not just connected to the his life, guiding him back to Santa Rosa community of Roseland, he’s involved to give back to his hometown. in all levels of the city.”

“I took a lot from this city, man.

His clothing brand, Street Soldier, Now it’s about giving back,” Sanchezlaunched two weeks before the Northern Strawbridge says.

California wildfires as a form of positive Chaparro and Sanchez-Strawbridge reinforcement for community members first became aware of one another working to make a change in their lives through the community outreach and a difference in their communities. work they do. “Danny has the passion The Street Soldier roster of outreach of seeing his community ignored and members includes alleged gang members disenfranchised and the will to help and homeless youth. them better themselves.”

“Some people question the name– Chaparro’s passion led Sanchezthat it’s too hard or sounds gang relat- Strawbridge to encourage him to reped,” Chaparro says. “The more people resent Roseland as a community adviquestion it, the better. It’s about chang- sory board member and attend a Santa ing perspectives.”

Rosa Together meeting at the Roseland Immediately folCommunity Library. lowing the fires, Chaparro wound Chaparro mobilized up serving as the the Street Soldier “The mayor asked me only capable translateam. “We donated tor for the grassroots where I see myself in event held by parfood and water to shelters, but I realized five years. I told him, ents and commuthat wasn’t enough,” nity members. His ‘I want to be mayor.’” ability to step in and Chaparro says.

The Street Soldier connect with both - Danny Chaparro relief squad went from English and Spanish four to 50 people in speakers prompted one day. They bought many within Roseappliances, clothes, land to suggest that food and assembled he apply for the care packages for families. “That’s when I representative position. The meeting felt like I could really take on the role of a sparked intrigue within Chaparro to leader,” Chaparro says. learn more.

Chaparro’s ambition, genuine de“He took it upon himself to find out meanor and ability to act quickly in a more about the board,” says city of Santa time of crisis caught the eye of Salvador Rosa Community Engagement CoordiSanchez-Strawbridge, 34, a community nator Danielle Ronshausen. “He’s very outreach specialist for the city of Santa committed and very passionate about the Rosa. Sanchez-Strawbridge assisted in Roseland area and his community.” coordinating the Elsie Allen High School For Roseland, having a Santa Rosa evacuation center during the wildfires.

City Council representative would be “The disaster showed that Danny a major step forward in revitalizing an was real,” Sanchez-Strawbridge says. area that has seemingly been an after“I don’t vouch for people lightly. I can thought for decades. vouch for him.”

“Daniel is coming in at a good time; Danny Chaparro stands in front of the they’re beginning the strategic planning Andy Lopez mural in the Rosleand Com- process from the community advisory munity Village Center. Chaparro hopes committee,” Ronshausen says. “The city to create a brighter future for Roseland, is also in the process of developing dis-

Chaparro is a natural fit to represent the area: a bilingual, Mexican-American RoseCo-Editor-in-Chief land resident with the ambition and passion for helping his community’s disadvantaged The Roseland Community Village and underrepresented members. Chaparro shopping center is a flurry of activity works as a case manager for a non-profit on a Saturday morning. The heart of organization helping at-risk youth.

this culturally diverse yet civically insulated neighborhood awakens with its residents. Eritrean, Latine, homeless – there’s a unique cross section of life operating within the neighborhood’s central nervous system.

On one end of the shopping center, street vendors briskly make their rounds.

The majority specialize in tacos and tamales. Some peddle fruits and vegetables, others offer the healing powers of Jesus and Mary Jane.

On the opposite end, members of the “Remembrance Village” homeless encampment trickle in and out of the Dollar Tree. They congregate in front and out back of the discount store with cigarettes and sodas.

In the middle of all this activity stands Danny Chaparro, 25, former Santa Rosa Junior College student, Chico State graduate and the newly appointed member to Santa Rosa’s community advisory board.

The community advisory board is an extension of the city council and consists of 14 members, with the mayor having the final say on approving new members. Each council member is allowed to appoint two members covering seven areas in the city. They are volunteer positions that meet once a month. The board members serve as a bridge from the community to city government, hearing from the neighborhood groups in their areas and relaying those concerns to the city.

What makes Chaparro’s appointment significant is that he’s the first person to represent Roseland in the role. Prior to Roseland’s annexation by Santa Rosa, the role never existed.

He scans his surroundings, his homebase, shaking his head at the gaping lot in the middle of the center. “This needs to be a rec hall or a place for kids,” he says.

“Kids here grow up too fast; they just don’t have the resources they need.”

For an area that appears to be in constant motion, things seem to remain stuck in neutral. The recent annexation into Santa Rosa, coupled with Chaparro’s even more recent appointment as leader of Southwest, may finally shift Roseland into a different gear and on the fast track to change.

What that means exactly remains to be seen. “I want the neighborhood to change, but I don’t want it to give in com-

Michael Barnes/ Oak Leaf

Danny Chaparro is Santa Rosa’s first-ever community advisory board member from the Roseland area.

trict boundaries. From there we will hold a districts’ election process, so Roseland or the Southwest area can potentially have someone finally representing them at city council.”

A traffic sign on Sebastopol Road informs Roseland residents of changing conditions to the area’s infrastructure.

Mayor Coursey hopes residents of post-annexation Roseland will involve themselves and engage with city government to facilitate changes for the future.

“We’re hopefully going to have our first city council member from Roseland after the districts’ elections in November,” Mayor Coursey says.

Residents who live and work in these districts are all too familiar with the lack of options and resources available to them. Amber Stiving, 28, a first-grade teacher at Roseland Creek Elementary school and close friend of Chaparro’s can attest to this.

“Teaching in this district, I see the need that’s needed here is so much more than other areas,” says Stiving. “Roseland needs more available places for the youth.

Like a community garden and parks.”

Stiving asks Chaparro to speak to her classes from time to time, talking about the differences between a boss and a leader. “He makes them think, ‘What’s the easiest way to make a change in my community?’” Stiving says.

Stiving was born and raised in Roseland and is well aware of the negative connotations some outsiders associate with the neighborhood. “There’s so much more to Roseland,” she says. “I hope to see those negative outlooks turn to positives for the overall community.”

Chaparro agrees with this. “People love coming here for the tacos, but they eat and leave. Why not eat and stay?” he says.

Post-annexation, Chaparro and the city of Santa Rosa’s focus will be convincing people to stay and embrace the area to help make changes in Roseland.

“We want to keep Roseland the way it is,” Community Engagement Coordinator Danielle Ronshausen says. “Instead of county working on the roads, it will be city. And instead of sheriffs patrolling, it will be SRPD.” Residents like Stiving aren’t too concerned with the forthcoming changes affecting the fabric of the neighborhood. “It has its own culture,” Stiving says. “It’s unbreakable.”

The area’s strong flavor is something that even came up in discussion between Mayor Coursey and a group of students from the Roseland school district at city hall. “I told the kids Santa Rosa has grown all around Roseland, making the neighborhood like a hole in the middle of a donut,” Mayor Coursey says.

This statement elicited a poignant response from a young schoolgirl who stuck her hand up and said, “Roseland isn’t a hole. It’s the jelly.”

It’s an observation Mayor Coursey agrees with. “It is like the jelly filling for the city in a lot of ways,” Mayor Coursey says. “It’s sweet, with a lot of flavor to it.”

Another observation most residents generally agree on is the ability of Chaparro to represent Roseland and help guide the area as it ventures into uncharted territory.

“We’re not doing this to have a token brown guy,” Sanchez-Strawbridge says. “He’s someone who if you put in the right position, he will walk through it. I’m proud of the city for doing this. It’s a really progressive move.”

Chaparro appears up for the challenge of Roseland’s first community advisory board member. However, there’s an even bigger challenge down the road that Chaparro believes he can take on.

“The mayor asked me where I see myself in five years,” Chaparro says. “I told him, ‘I want to be the mayor.’”

Latinx-tra, extra, read all about it/ lee todo los detalles!

Oak Leaf Staff The first Spanish-language article to appear in The Oak Leaf was written by Jesus Martinez and ran in the April 1993 issue.

Since then, no other Oak Leaf staff member took the initiative to create more Spanish-language content until Fall 2017.

A spring semester goal of Oak Leaf CoEditor-in-Chief, Michael Barnes, a proud Chicano, was to create a section dedicated to Spanish. Bilingual staff writer, Jose Gonzalez, expressed an interest in writing for Spanish speakers. The first story he produced ran in the October 2017 print issue ‘Firestorm.’ The story, “Student loses her house in Tubbs fire,” served as a catalyst for the creation of the first dedicated Spanish

breaking news, sports and features about all things SRJC. “I have always wanted to be a Spanish journalist,” Gonzalez said. “For the future, I want the Spanish section to continue representing SRJC Latinx community.”

El primer artículo en español que apareció en The Oak Leaf fue escrito por Jesús Martínez y se publicó en abril del 1993.

Desde entonces, ningún otro miembro del personal de Oak Leaf tomó la iniciativa de Dakota McGranahan/ Oak Leaf crear más contenido en español hasta el Spanish Editor and Co-Editor-In-Chief Jose Gonzalez and Michael Barnes otoño de 2017. section in the Oak Leaf ’s history.

Un objetivo del semestre de la primavera Gonzalez is now the Spanish section del coeditor en jefe de Oak Leaf, Michael editor, the first Oak Leaf staff member to Barnes, un orgulloso chicano, era crear fulfill such a role. The stories ranged from una sección dedicada al español. El escri-

tor bilingüe, José González, expresó su interés en escribir para hispanohablantes. La primera historia que produjo corrió en el periodico de octubre del 2017, “Firestorm.”

La historia, “El alumno pierde su casa en Tubbs Fire”, sirvió como catalizador para la creación de la primera sección dedicada en español en la historia del Oak Leaf.

González es ahora el editor de la sección en español, el primer miembro del personal de Oak Leaf en cumplir ese rol.

Las historias iban desde noticias de última hora, deportes y características sobre todas las cosas SRJC. “Siempre quise ser un periodista de español,” dijo González. “Para el futuro, quiero que la sección en español continúe representando a la comunidad SRJC Latinx”.

www.theoakleafnews.com

Features

7

SRJC’s continuously changing cannabis culture Chelsea Wood

Opinion Editor Pot, dope, weed. Ganja, chronic, herb. All words used to describe a plant that has caused much debate over its medicinal value, legality and reputation.

Harvesting past articles from The Oak Leaf ’s archives revealed a virtually nonexistent cannabis culture during the early years of Santa Rosa Junior College.

However, throughout the decades public opinion has shifted from narrow-minded to tolerant and supportive.

As cannabis culture and the public’s views of it continue to alter, it’s hopeful that a successful, budding new industry will blossom. Reflecting on past standpoints show that attitudes towards marijuana have come a long way.

Negative views clouded the air well after the 1936 propaganda movie, “Reefer Madness,” debuted. In the movie, originally titled “Tell Your Children,” teen smokers are depicted as crazed and reckless addicts with no self-control.

The movie hit parents with more paranoia than a first-time smoker and sparked anti-marijuana sentiment.

The earliest mention of marijuana in The Oak Leaf was negative and can be traced to a 1938 article titled, “Legislature Is Attended By Students.”

At the time, student government leaders from SRJC attended the California Youth Legislature Model with other student leaders from colleges across the state to create solutions to common issues. One proposal was a bill that urged more education against marijuana, suggesting that cannabis was not widely accepted by Sonoma County youth during this era.

In a November 1951 issue of The Oak Leaf, an article titled “Deadly Killer Stalks Sonoma County Seat” noted the dangers of narcotics and connected marijuana as a gateway to deadly drugs like cocaine or heroin. The article warned, “Soon the lift that is gotten from one reefer isn’t enough and more cigarettes at lesser intervals are required.”

Positive support for marijuana culture kicked into effect during the counterculture revolution of the 1960s. From Haight-Ashbury to The Waldos, the creators of the term “420,” and concerts to garage kickbacks, weed became the drug of choice for many teens and college students.

In the 1965 article, “Trends and Ideas From Other College Campuses,” Oak Leaf writer Kathy Bramwell said marijuana was found to be a staple drug on many campuses.

“It was no secret that drugs had become a part of college life,” Bramwell wrote. “The drugs are not attractive because they are forbidden, but because the young are looking for mystical experiences and want to keep renewing the experience.”

Following President Nixon’s 1970 Controlled Substance Act, the U.S. government labeled marijuana a Schedule 1 substance, likening it to heroin, LSD, GHB and more.

Schedule 1 drugs are drugs that can be abused, have no officially recognized medical benefits and are unsafe even while under medical supervision, according to the FDA. By the late ‘70s, cannabis had become even more accepted in mainstream society.

Two pages of a 1976 Oak Leaf issue were dedicated to detailing recently enacted legislation changes involving marijuana possession charges and fines.

Articles like “The Real Deal on Dope” aimed to educate readers about the logistics of The Moscone Act, which changed small possession charges from felonies to misdemeanors. “Thus possession of one pound of marijuana for personal use will be a misdemeanor, while possession of one ounce or less with intent to sell is a felony.”

The new legislation even allowed for previous charges to be expunged through a Superior Court petition.

Throughout the ‘80s, The Oak Leaf reported several possession arrests on campus. In each case students would be identified and have their marijuana and paraphernalia confiscated before release.

Campus police handled cases of possession lightly, rarely involving SRPD. A 1980s campus police officer, Dennis Gilmore, compared these offenses to traffic tickets and said students would receive citations, but never criminal charges.

In 1988, cannabis culture was accepted and the school considered its use as a normal occurrence.

Andrea Neptune’s piece, “It’s no crime to be caught with pot,” covered former Dean Ken Holback’s point of view of these cases. “It’s very rare that I will bring a student into my office about it,” Holback said.

Public opinion on cannabis in California has fluctuated throughout the years, but Californians have remained consistent for several decades in support of cannabis’ medical use.

An October 1996 article, “Compassion will vote ‘yes’ on 215,” foreshadowed medicinal marijuana legalization while urging the public to inform themselves before voting. “Realistically, maintaining its illegal status protects nobody, not your children and certainly not people with diseases whose symptoms marijuana can ease.”

Shortly after, Californians approved Proposition 215, “The Compassionate Use Act,” which allowed people 18 years and older to purchase regulated cannabis with a doctor’s recommendation.

Proposition 215 wasn’t the first time California featured marijuana burning on a ballot. First in 1972 with the California Marijuana Initiative, then again in 2010 with Proposition 19. California voters were twice given the chance to legalize, regulate and decriminalize recreational marijuana use. However, both times the acts failed to gain enough support for legalization.

The option to legalize came once again in 2016 with Proposition 64, a thorough and revised proposition that had a $11 million support campaign. This new act covered all the bases, regulating advertisement, package labeling and taxation.

In 2016, Proposition 64 passed with 57.13 percent of voters in favor, which legalized

recreational marijuana use in California. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act allows state agencies to issue licenses for the regulated, legal sale of cannabis and imposes a 15 percent excise tax on cannabis products.

Starting Jan. 1, 2018, taxes on cultivation and distribution rose to $9.25 per ounce of bud and $2.75 per ounce of leaves. The bill also put a fiveyear halt on licenses for large corporations to protect small, independently-owned businesses.

While an underground cannabis industry has been around for decades, the recent legalization and new regulations will open more doors to business opportunities and will bring a new demographic of consumers.

Marijuana culture among young people will grow steadily in California because of the recent recreational legalization. Some SRJC students welcome the changes and hope for a positive future.

“I predict marijuana will get more socially acceptable and common,” said Jerome, 19, a sociology major who declined to share his last name.

Other students, like Cameron White, 19, accept legalized cannabis, but don’t plan on partaking in recreational marijuana.

“I’m fine with it, especially if it’s good for the economy,” said White, a political science major.

While the opinions on cannabis culture among young adults are mixed, overall support for legalization has sparked an educational decision from the school.

Santa Rosa Junior College plans to develop several cannabis courses, and potentially even a certificate program.

“It’s eventually going to happen,” SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong said in a meeting with Oak Leaf staff.

The school has discussed plans with Sonoma County Growers Alliance and

Pixabay.com

Northern California climate and terrain are ideal for cultivating cutting-edge cannabis due to the heavy rainfall and fertile soil in redwood covered hills.

CannaCraft for a cannabis certificate program.

“Cannabis is clearly a growing industry,” Chong said. This creates a perfect opportunity to involve SRJC students in the cultivation and education of cannabis in order to be prepared for the expanding industry.

Ricky Hamilton, 27, an SRJC geology major and medicinal marijuana smoker, said he uses cannabis to regulate a mood disorder as well as to help sleep.

Hamilton would take cannabis courses if they work with his schedule, “It’s definitely something interesting to me—the botany aspect and messing with genetics of plants,” Hamilton said.

In a decade or so SRJC may have cannabis courses in full swing, preparing students for a new workfield. Cannabis may become a legitimate alternative to some traditional medicines, rendering addictive pain prescriptions ineffective.

In a century from now, society may have completely embraced the versatility of cannabis.

Zena Bounsall, 21 “I hope the price of education changes a lot. And I hope there are other learning strategies. I was homeschooled and I want people to know there are other options than public school.”

Evelyn Navarro, 24 “Any time there is a woman of color in a position of leadership, we are not only inspiring women of color to make change, but we’re making it a social norm because it’s not a social norm when it should be.”

Karli Halverson, 26 “Mindfulness, honesty and courage, I see these words around campus a lot. People need more services for those. I just hope that there is a lot less racial tension and more understanding of other cultures. ”

Huma of SRJC

Kyle Preston, 28 “2018 is hard year amidst political divisions and deterioration of social, economic and environmental progress but, even those who aren’t unaffected by social and economic injustices, are speaking up to stand with vulnerable communities. No matter your skin color, no matter how you came to America you will be respected, given equal rights and have a safe clean planet to inhabit.“

What should people100 years from n

Rachel Minor “I hope, generally, there is a lot less racial tension in the world, in the country and on campus. I hope for more understanding of other cultures.”

Ivan Barba, 20 “The Overton Window is becoming broader, there’s more sway in what’s accepted in culture and what’s not.

It’s going in the direction of mass equality on all spectrums and I just want to see how that develops.”

Kendal simpson, 18 “History repeats itself. We have to learn from our mistakes and we’re not doing that right now. We need to make sure that we focus on the future genertations and not focus on pleasing old constituences.”

Mark Murakami, 20 “One thing I have noticed the campus trying to do is improve equity and diversity, but I think it can be better, especially in the area of LGBTQ+ events.”

ans Mingma Sherpa, 23 “Your problems don’t define you, but rather how you deal with them. So don’t let your problems overwhelm you because what matters today probably won’t be a big deal tomorrow.”

now know about today?

Theresea Molina “I hope that in 100 years It embedded thoroughly so that they can experience different cultures and time periods virtually. Why not have musuems be interactive in a way social media can never be? ”

PROGRAMS AVAILABLE  Agribusiness  Animal Science  Brewing  Equine Science  Environmental Horticulture  Floral Design  Natural Resource Management  Sustainable Agriculture  Veterinary Technician  Viticulture  Wine Studies

Study at Shone Farm, a 365-acre hands-on learning lab The Sonoma County Junior College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, ethnic group identification, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic condition, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or sexual orientation in any of its policies, procedures or practices; nor does the District discriminate against any employees or applicants for employment on the basis of their age. This nondiscrimination policy covers admission, access and treatment in District programs and activities--including but not limited to academic admissions, financial aid, educational services and athletics--and application for District employment. The Sonoma County Junior College District is an equal opportunity employer.

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SRJC crafts brewing program

Kevin Johnson and David Tamayo News Editor and Staff Writer Brewing beer sounds like a dream job.

There’s so much room for creativity like experimenting with flavors and ingredients, tweaking the fermentation process, tasting your creations and perfecting the formula. At Shone Farm, Santa Rosa Junior College students learn this magical process step by step, hop by hop in the hopes of starting a career in the millennia-old art of brewing.

In Sonoma County, the craft brewing industry has exploded. The emergence of popular breweries like Lagunitas, Russian River Brewing Company, Cooperage Brewing Company, Bear Republic and Barrel Brothers Brewing Company has caused demand for more skilled local brewers to grow.

In 2017, the website pudding.cool ranked Santa Rosa as the microbrew capital of the country, beating out heavyweights like Denver, Minneapolis and St. Louis.

SRJC responded to this explosion of brew culture by creating a two-semester certificate program that prepares students to enter the industry or even launch their own microbrewery.

The 16-unit certificate program covers everything a potential brewer needs to know. Students learn fermentation, the process by which yeast turns malted barley into alcohol, a pillar of beer making, and how to manipulate temperature to affect carbonation of varieties like lagers, stouts, pilsners and ales.

Students become familiar with how different raw materials produce different results in the milling, mashing and malting processes. They learn filtration, packaging, bottling, kegging, quality assurance testing and equipment maintenance.

In the initial lab phase of the class,

students brew 5-to-10-gallon batches, using hands-on experience to learn these principles. In the second semester a small commercial brewing system is used to produce around 62 gallons of ale.

Students use the system to familiarize themselves with the different valves and pumps on a commercial brewing still.

Responding quickly to local industry’s needs is an important function of community colleges. The brewing program is one example of how SRJC tailors its curriculum to community needs.

Katie Barmazel, one of two women in the new program, has always enjoyed home brewing and said the local craft brewing explosion inspired her to pursue a formal education.

Barmazel is exactly the kind of student SRJC hopes the new program will attract; somebody who has a passion for brewing and wants to turn that hobby into a career.

“The expansion of the local industry did have an influence on me. It allowed me to come into the program as someone who was just exploring the world of craft brewing, as someone who just liked the flavors and styles and home brewing myself,” Barmazel said. “It’s a little easier if you have prior knowledge even in just home brewing.”

Brewing lab instructor Wesley Deal sums up the goal of the new program best: “It’s an industry designed to make people happy.”

Fall 2017 marked the maiden semester for the brewing program, attracting students of all backgrounds and aspirations. As with any new program there is a learning curve, but the potential for growth is clear.

“Mostly it’s been working out the kinks as far as what we’re focusing on and what we need to know when working on a commercial system,” Barmazel said.

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Typically, would-be brewing students have been directed towards UC Davis, which has renowned brewing and viticulture programs 50 years in the making. The program has produced local legends like Brian Hunt of Santa Rosa’s Moonlight Brewing Co. and Jesus Ceja of Sonoma’s Carneros Brewing Co. But SRJC provides a cheaper alternative.

Traditionally, brewers break into the industry by knowing someone in it, reading books about it and then learning on the job.

David Tamayo Oak Leaf Bryan Donaldson, who studied at Adjunct professor, Wesley Deal shows students how to grind pilsner malt at Shone Farm.

UC Davis and is SRJC’s brewing instructor and lecturer, said he’s trying do things,” Donaldson said. His instruc- works every semester as it grows.”

Ultimately, students being the proto “provide a background for employ- tor at UC Davis wrote him a letter of recommendation and he plans to return gram’s guinea pigs. “The most fun thing ers to build upon.”

He gives students the tools they need the favor to his students. “Any student is actually being surrounded by people to use different techniques, ingredients who proves they know the material, I’m who are interested in the same thing, and equipment to obtain the best final gonna go to bat for them.” working together and making the best product possible. An educated workDeal teaches the lab and Donaldson product possible,” Barmazel said. “Some force is key if demand for local brewer- is the lecturer. The duality of Donaldson of us are talking about teaming up down ies is to remain high or increase. and Deal’s teaching styles gives students the line.”

“To produce a high-quality product, multiple perspectives on each topic in an Wills is interested in producing a beer you need high-quality workers with a industry that thrives on creativity, inno- for the general public but needs to work broad knowledge base,” said Donaldson, vation and a willingness to experiment. on licensing and getting the proper apwho also works as Lagunitas’s brewing Students visit local breweries and have provals. Students produce wine for sale innovation manager. “Brewing is a lot brewing community speakers come in, at Shone Farm, and Wills thinks they of work for not a lot of money. It’s not providing different perspectives. could do the same with beer. always creating. Cleaning and sanitation Engaging with the local brewing Last semester professional brew are important.” community is essential to the program’s judges visited the students and critiqued Shone Farm Pavilion Director Chris success. The owners of the Russian their recipes. The winner got to brew Wills developed the course outlines, but River, Moonlight, Bear Republic and their beer at Barrel Brothers Brewery, Donaldson will take over as brewing Woodfour brewing companies advise where Lab Instructor Deal is co-foundprogram director. One of Donaldson’s the brewing program’s leaders on what er. This semester the winner of the ingoals as brewing instructor and eventual they want out of a certificate graduate. house brewing contest will get 10 barprogram director is to get the program Ideally, graduates can get a job at one of rels of their creation produced at Barrel accredited by two national brewing as- these or other local breweries.

Brothers and the formula will be sold. sociations—the Master Brewers Asso“Locally, there’s so many breweries.

“I think this is a great opportunity ciation of America and the American It’s really important for beer, especially, for the students and a great way to get Society of Brewing Chemists. These if you are trying to groom people for the the word out about our new program,” bodies monitor and evaluate programs local industry, that the local industry is Wills said.

Whatever recipe the students develacross the country and suggest the best giving their input. Especially in these early stages of the program,” Deal said. op—whether it’s a triple IPA or a light practices for beer-making.

“In brewing there’s a lot of right ways “It could go in a lot of different direc- summer ale—it’s sure to be a promising to do things and a lot of wrong ways to tions. We’re really focusing in on what start in their brewing careers.

Measure H revitalizes tired Burbank Auditorium

Jett Williams/ Oak Leaf

The remodel of Burbank extends beyond the walls of the building. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for early January.

Jett Williams A&E Edtitor Good things are coming soon to Santa Rosa Junior College theater arts students.

The first project funded by the Measure H spending bill, passed in 2014 to revitalize SRJC infrastructure, is well underway. Brand new facilities and equipment will replace the obsolete interior of Burbank Auditorium when it reopens in December 2018.

When it opened in 1918, SRJC didn’t have anything resembling a large auditorium for the drama department. Plays and musicals were shoehorned into the library, or performed next door at the Santa Rosa High School auditorium. The construction of Burbank Auditorium in 1939 gave theater arts students their very own stage.

The auditorium is the first of several buildings to be overhauled using money from Measure H, a state bond grant Sonoma County residents approved to revitalize the.

The $410 million bond, first voted on in 2014, serves to “upgrade facilities, address overcrowding and prepare students to attend fouryear universities,” according to a statement released by SRJC President Dr. Frank Chong.

John Shillington, a SRJC theater arts instructor, said that he is excited to return to Burbank and see the renovations. “The temporary offices and classrooms are all working but there is a sense that this is a time of being displaced,” Shillington said.

Improvements to Burbank Auditorium will include renovated prop and costume production rooms, two new classrooms and a new multifunction studio theater room with a capacity of 200. The biggest change comes to the original 400seat main auditorium, which is receiving raised stadium seating to provide better lines of sight and full American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance.

Shillington said that the old theater contained pockets of space where performers struggled to project their voices, due to the way sound traveled in the room. “It was one of the most challenging theaters young actors would ever have to play in terms of projection,” Shillington said.

Nathan Haimson, 19, spent their

first semester learning at Burbank before this year’s move to the Lark temporary buildings. They described the facilities at Burbank as “dated.”

“They had a lot of room, but seemed like they needed updating.” Haimson also said it was a struggle moving from Burbank to Lark, due to the facilities at Lark being “limited.”

Theater arts students will be confined to the Lark temporary classrooms until Burbank Auditorium reopens in December.

The Measure H bond covers many aspects of SRJC beyond the auditorium. In addition to the $20 million budgeted for the Burbank renovations, $87 million is set aside for Tauzer Gym, Analy Hall, Garcia Hall, Pioneer Hall, Emeritus Hall and the Petaluma Student Food Services building.

In addition to the major remodels on these buildings, other structures like Maggini and Bussman halls are receiving smaller maintenance and repair projects budgeted under $50,000.

The funding also covers modifications to make all buildings compliant with ADA standards, placement of new permanent parking spaces, a new STEM building, improvements for Shone Farm and Southwest Cen-

ter equipment, new faculty and staff computers and a new oncampus WiFi infrastructure.

Burbank Auditorium was originally built using funds from the Public Works Administration, a government agency formed after President Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933. It hosted drama classes and productions, as well as photography classes and concerts staged by the music department. When built, it was the most expensive building on the campus by a wide margin, costing $171,000 at the time.

Luther Burbank, whose experiments in botany and plant crossbreeding gave him local-hero status, gave the auditorium its name.

Burbank also contributed heavily to SRJC’s growth, donating his property to the school for use as a training ground for its botany students.

Theatre arts Department Chair Leslie McCauley said in a recent press release, “A modern theater will provide a foundation for our students to enter the workforce, but more importantly, we hope to provide our students with the confidence to pursue their dreams – theater has a way of doing that.”

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Burbank Auditorium is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2019.

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April 17, 2018

Tech panel: Women’s place in the digital race Jennifer Do Staff Writer

promotion, with the affiliated X, the moonshot factory. She was promoted to project lead for an initiative within X just before the event.

“It can change the world,” Prewitt said of her new venture.

The semi-secret think tank company works to solve huge problems through radical solutions and breakthrough technology.

For example, Project Loon aims to provide internet access to twothirds of the world without access by using a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space.

Skilled communication is necessary for business and creative aspects of technology, like management or marketing.

Three high-profile women in technology shared experiences working in a field that doesn’t typically see a woman’s name beyond Siri and Alexa.

Women from X, The Moonshot Factory, Ancestry.com and VIAVI Solutions gathered March 30 for the Women in Technology panel at Our House Intercultural Center on the Petaluma campus, a Women’s History Month event.

Featured panelists included Patricia Prewitt, Rapid Evaluation program manager for X, the moonshot factory, Dr. Catherine “You can learn everything else Ball, Ancestry.com’s senior vice you need to learn, as long as you can president and chief scientific officer, communicate well,” Prewitt said. and Dr. Carole Thoraval, VIAVI “Commitment to lifelong learning Solutions senior research scientist. is the recipe for success,” Ball said These women about the everin technology changing nature embodied personal of technology.

“There are more standards, the The next power of persistence wave in science, CEOs named John and advocacy for t e c h n o l o g y, than there are diversity in the engineering and workplace. math, or STEM, women. That puts Women led and is processing data into perspective dominated the into conclusions field of computer and informathe world we’ve programming in tion, Ball said. been living in the the ‘60s, according “Turning data to Gender News into information last few years,’” Magazine. Today, is magic.

It it’s the savvy, whitetakes a lot of - Dr. Catherine Ball collar domain of work, creativity, Senior Vice President, men. As technology imagination, Ancestry.com operates the world context and at exponential judgment,” Ball rates, women must said. reclaim a place in Computer this industry. codes are the building blocks “There are more CEOs named in advancing technology. From John than there are women. That Thoraval, who wrote software while puts into perspective the world specializing in chemistry, to Ball, we’ve been living in the last few who built databases to study the years,” Ball said. “There’s nothing human genomes, to Prewitt, who inherently evil about technology. shared the language with engineers It’s business.” and physicists, the panelists Being the only woman in the expressed its value. room was a shared experience, but One aspect of computer literacy none faced disparity in wage or is understanding the labor and time respect. According to Ball, bias goes behind coding, Ball and Prewitt beyond the technology spectrum. explained. Impossible expectations Given the public scrutiny on will earn you disrespect from the potential pay gaps in recent years, software engineers. good companies will ensure any Being computer literate wrong is righted, Ball said. increases autonomy. It gives you Google, founder of X, The the independence to resolve and Moonshot Factory, was involved prevent computer errors. in a 2017 lawsuit claiming wage Hands-on careers are found inequality, and a New York Times in research and technical areas, investigation of 1,200 employees’ such as laboratories or hardware salary data found Google paid engineering. Becoming an engineer women employees less than may mean starting as a technician. men at equal-level jobs. Prewitt Getting your foot in the door said she has not experienced can begin with a knock. For inequality herself.

Thoraval, knocking on the door of Google Ventures recruited the local company Optical Coating Prewitt through a reference and Laboratory, Inc., or OCLI, landed a background in finance. Upon her a job in an environmental lab. reconsideration, her blend of After earning a doctorate in financial experience and an English chemistry and years of computer degree earned her a spot on a programming experience, Thoraval Google creative team instead. did laboratory work while writing “For X, [women] probably do software and reports. With enough drive an enormous amount of the resources and freedom, the creativity,” Prewitt said. next initiative for Thoraval was Prewitt, an English major, managing her own projects. rejected Google’s first employment VIAVI Solutions is currently offer. Now, she’s earned her fourth working on an anti-counterfeiting

Jennifer Do / Oak Leaf

Women from X, the moonshot factory, Ancestry.com and VIAVI Solutions discuss how they succeeded in a male-dominated industry.

color shifting pigment.

“For getting a Ph.D. or for serving in the military, there are going to be experiences in your life that are difficult, but they teach you so much about yourself. That’s the lesson you carry throughout your life,” Ball said.

Ball explained how the discipline, drive and focus from earning a doctorate enabled her to take night courses for coding, as a single mother with two young children.

She learned code to drive her own work forward. It teaches you management, problem-solving routines and self-awareness, she said.

Most high positions require a doctoral degree. A 4-year degree is often the minimum requirement.

In few instances, proven skills and experience can compensate.

“Students here are really anxious about what to do with their liberal arts degrees,” said Dr. Amanda Morrison, SRJC Petaluma coordinator for Our House Intercultural Center. “They haven’t made the connection that they might have a place in Silicon Valley and tech sectors.”

With a sociology degree, Morrison was able to find work at Citysearch, part of Ticketmaster.

Prewitt encouraged voluntary exploration in addition to a liberal arts degree. With an English degree, she expanded her skills by learning Python, a programming language, and doing voluntary work in foundational medicine at Harvard.

Ball, who went directly from undergraduate to graduate school, believed she would have benefited from gaining more experience inbetween those years.

Students with a liberal arts degree can still have a prosperous future.

“Don’t worry about it. Really. I’m living proof,” Prewitt said.

Prewitt, who also has no Ph.D., gave an example of a software engineer at Google who qualified without post-high school education. The software engineer was described as brilliant and creative with extensive experience and impressive, independent work.

“Education is the most important.

[However] it’s cool how you can make it without a Ph.D.,” said

Devin Schwarz / Oak Leaf

Jamie Molina, an SRJC student and employee for Our House Intercultural Center.

Early exposure to science and technology for girls and women is the foundation for females in these

“It’s the exposure.

Like, ‘Hey, if these women can do it, so can you.’”

- Nikko Mendoza, aerospace engineering student at UC Davis

industries. Thoraval works with an annual program called “Expanding Your Horizon” to increase that exposure. This year, the event will be hosted from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

April 14 at Sonoma State University.

“Every time you bring in a new voice, it gets better,” Ball said. “The

point is to make a computer game attractive to 70 million people, and we need a few more voices for that.”

“It’s the exposure. Like, ‘Hey, if these women can do it, so can you,’” said Nikko Mendoza, an aerospace engineering student at UC Davis and local advocate of STEM in the Roseland district. “It gets overwhelming when you’re— speaking from experience [as a minority]—a minority in anything and you’re the only person that’s like that.”

Women’s empowerment begins with self-empowerment.

For Thoraval, it was a knock on the door; for Ball, receiving a Ph.D. gave her skillsets applicable throughout her life and career and for Prewitt, saying ‘no’ ultimately led to a leading role for a groundbreaking project.

“It’s so obviously our future.

Why wouldn’t I want to shape it?”

Prewitt said. “It’s not necessarily a ‘who.’ It’s just a vision of the future, and knowing that it’s going to affect me, I might as well make it.”

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Judas Priest continues to lead the charge

Wikimedia

Séamus Reed

Time Wise, author of “White Lies Matter: Race, Crime and the Politics of Fear in America” speaks to SRJC attendees about the state of racism in America.

Adeira Sherpa / Oak Leaf

Wise words on white privilege Adeira Sherpa Co-Photo-Editor Racism isn’t new. It hasn’t just now come to surface under the Trump administration. Perhaps it stems from the American dream, the belief that success is purely dependent on how hard one tries, an American anti-racism activist and writer told Santa Rosa Junior College students April 9.

Tim Wise, the author of “White Like Me,” “Dear White America” and most recently, “White Lies Matter: Race, Crime and the Politics of Fear in America,” which charismatically explain the downfalls of white privilege, not just for people of color, but for whites as well, spoke to a packed Newman Auditorium as part of the 2018 SRJC Arts and Lectures Spring Program.

As a father of two teenage daughters, Wise attempted to maintain some hopefulness despite a predisposition to cynicism, especially in his line of work.

He began by explaining how under the Obama administration his job became the hand-holding and convincing of white people that racism still existed.

“The election of a person from a marginalized group says nothing, literally nothing about the larger structural obstacles facing millions of other people from that same group.”

Wise’s only silver lining with Trump’s presidency is that the obviousness of racism is no longer questioned.

He worries though that with the recent blatant white supremacy and outburst from those of the far right, “It allows all the rest of us to get distance from the problem; it allows the rest of us to content ourselves with the idea that we’re not like that, we’re better and those are the bad people over there, the Nazis.

They’re the bad people.”

This thought process doesn’t address the real issues.

“These problems predate and will postdate this administration and whatever ramped up level of overt

racial hostility and anti-immigrant of maintaining control. By incentivhysteria that’s been genned up in izing poor white indentured serthe process of this administration,” vants with the perchance of growth, they were able to prevent a joint reWise said.

An impassioned Wise spewed sta- bellion of slaves and the poor.

The mindset became, “I might tistics confirming the ever-present not be rich, but at least I’m not inequalities. black,” Wise said. The same tactic “White households headed by was used in the Civil War to keep high school dropouts have onepoor white men fighting so the third more wealth on average than wealthy could keep their slaves and black households headed by college then again when labor unions seggraduates,” he said. regated against African-Americans.

Beyond the wealth disparity, But by demonizing the blacks and there’s also the over-penalization of browns, it wasn’t the poor or midblacks and browns for crimes comdle class that benefited, it was still mitted just as often by whites. Wise the wealthy white men. The poor brought up marijuana dispensaries; and middle class were only digging while whites get away with making themselves deeper. it legal, blacks and browns are crimWise also criticized labor unions. inalized for smoking in the streets, He said their perceived profeshe said. sionalism through the exclusion of He compared the inequity to a other races weakened their cause disadvantaged runner in a race. If by decreasing their potential union someone is starting enough laps size and in turn providing their behind their competitor, even if employers with an they’re running alternative labor faster, they might force. not catch up.

“These problems He then jumped He also unapolointo a discussion getically called out predate and will of the present. the individuals postdate this Wise ridiculed the who believe that support for the Trump’s behavior administration.” building of a wall. is unprecedented He explained capiand “not normal.”

Tim Wise tal isn’t going to A rich white man be stopped by the having power and wall.

Economic turning other less investments will wealthy white peocontinue to go ple against blacks where labor is cheap. and browns is a history that keeps “In a way that takes advantage on repeating itself. of lack of worker protections, lack “If we limit ourselves to an analyof minimum-wage protections in sis of the obvious, we miss the inthose other countries,” he said. “So stitutional—we miss the structural,” rather than joining together in solihe said. darity in a global labor movement Wise, who has made a career out that could fight to raise wages and of educating America as a whole working conditions for all workers, through his books and educating we just get pitted against one anstudents by giving speeches at more other while the rich folk continue to than 1,000 campuses nationwide, make off with all of the money.” provided a history of where this Wise drew audience members in idea of being white came from. with a comedic retelling of an inciThe concept wasn’t derived from dent with his daughters in the car. a commonality between those of The younger of the two, who was 10 European descent but from wealthy at the time, questioned her father, landowners in the colonial period “Why is this neighborhood pretty realizing how outnumbered they much all black?”

An excited Wise were by poor people. It was a means

was interrupted by his 12-year-old who quickly answered “red lining.”

He explained that the problem ran deeper than that. Red lining, a practice from the 1930s through the 1960s where the Federal Housing Administration drew red lines around neighborhoods they would not invest in, was the reason the neighborhood remained poor.

Whites were being subsidized to move out of the city and into suburbs and blacks were being trapped within city limits because of lack of fair housing and discrimination.

Wise’s education on the subject made it possible for him to further explain the situation to his daughters, but not every parent would have such an accurate response.

Most parents would answer with what culture has ingrained into Americans; as long as you try hard enough, success is possible. This answer would be in total denial of the history.

“Racism becomes a default position. Sexism does too, because you see women disproportionately down here. You see men disproportionately up here,” Wise said.

It’s a system rigged against minorities but one that sets up whites for a fall as well. Wise drew connections between the opioid epidemic in rural small town America and feelings of inadequacy and unpreparedness “inequality is dangerous because you never know when it’s coming for you.”

He compared Trump to a political opioid – a means of stopping pain but not actually fixing the problem. A Band-Aid to essentially mask socio-economic problems.

Wise ended with a call to action.

“We have a lot more to gain out of solidarity and unity and fighting back this history of divideand-conquer that has worked so perfectly to keep us fighting with one another, once again, over the pieces of a pie that not one of us in this room own.” He continued, “We have a decision to make, a decision for which our children and our grandchildren will judge us for either kindly or harsh – the decision is up to you.”

Staff Writer Powerful, chaotic vocals.

Growling, thunderous bass lines.

Sharp, screaming riffs.

In their 2018 release, “Firepower,” their first album release since 2014’s “Redeemer of Souls,” heavy metal legends Judas Priest relive the glory of their early days, and prove their relevance and dominance of the metal scene in the years to come.

“Firepower” is the group’s highest charting album ever, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard 200, beating out “Redeemer of Souls” from sixth place.

Judas Priest, originally formed in West Bromwich, England in 1969, currently consists of Rob Halford on vocals, Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner shredding their twin guitars, Ian Hill backing up with bass and Scott Travis playing the drums.

While other bands of their vintage struggle to break into the 2010s, Judas Priest cuts through new-age bands with a classic, heavy feel.

Judas Priest’s sound has a characteristic speed to it, with most tracks featuring a blistering guitar riff and high energy drums setting a harsh pace. They capitalize on their classic sound while adding an edgy, evil element to it. Themes of devilry and lyrics about unrelenting villainy give the record an eerie, fearful ambiance.

While similar themes are common in death and black metal today, but Priest’s lyrics have different weight, and Rob Halford delivers with a confidence and skillful clarity that is uncommon in modern metal’s emphasis on harsher vocals.

Halford stands out on “Never the Hero” with a soaring chorus and antheme-worthy lyrics, interrupting the harshness of the album with a track about an anti-hero’s glory.

Songs like “Flamethrower” and “Firepower” build up a foreboding, harsh speed that keeps the listeners on the edge of their seats.

Many tracks have a chorus and a prechorus, giving the record an unpredictable feeling, almost as if the listener isn’t sure what will happen next. Well-known for their songwriting prowess, Priest flexes their strength and ability to full effect in this album, in heavy tracks like “Evil Never Dies” and “Necromancer.” These tracks jump from guitar solo to chorus to high-tempo shredding quick enough to give you motion sickness, in the best way.

Firepower is more than just a testament to Judas Priest’s strengths; it is a group of living legends expanding on a genre that they themselves created, pushing it forward in a powerful way. Judas Priest refuses to fall into obscurity, choosing instead to once again lead the charge.

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A&E

April 17, 2018

Jackson’s Bar and Oven Dinner fit for a king and queen Reina Underwood-Mironoff Staff Writer

O

n a Friday night, Jackson’s Bar and Oven in Railroad Square is the place to be if you want to feel like royalty.

Jackson’s has a dimly lit, elegant ambiance that appeals to a wide range of people, whether dressed to impress or those just dropping in for a quick drink. The long craft cocktail menu has something for anyone trying to unwind after a long day.

The hostess was quick as a whip to seat my date and me. Our table was against the wall, but still a part of the hustle-and-bustle action.

We started our meal with the Burrata, warm Italian buffalo milk cheese covered in honey and toasted pistachios, served with a side of warm and toasty pizza bread.

Then we enjoyed a half-dozen oysters with a side of cocktail sauce and shallot mignonette will send your taste buds into a frenzy.

The server was knowledgeable, helped us choose a wine

that paired with our appetizers, as we decided on entrees.

The decor was beautiful. The lights lined the ceiling and reminded me of an upside-down jellyfish or a perfectly golden crepe.

Our busser was also very attentive, kept our water glasses filled at all times and removed our dirty plates almost as quickly as they appeared.

When it came time to order our dinner entrées, our server accommodated my requests to remove certain elements from my dish and add a few personal touches.

I ordered the lamb-stuffed flatbread, normally served with the roasted lamb, hummus and mint chutney on flatbread. As a picky person, I asked for no mint chutney, and to add the roasted garlic aioli with goat cheese mousse.

I was a little skeptical to order the lamb, a meat I don’t usually enjoy, but was pleasantly surprised. It was tender, and the roasted garlic aioli complimented it perfectly. From now

on, Jackson’s lamb flatbread is the only way to go.

My date ordered the brick chicken, which consisted of farro, spinach, pecorino, chicken jus and roasted mushrooms-which he substituted for brussel sprouts. I tried a bite and the chicken was so tender, it melted in my mouth.

The au jus made the chicken so succulent I barely remember if I had to chew at all.

We finished the night off with another glass of wine before asking for the check. The meal was on the pricier side, denting our wallets with a $165 tab and a $40 tip, but we agreed our server and experience was worth it. By the time we left we were filled with the complete satisfaction of being catered to like a king and queen.

We agreed to return again soon when we feel like spoiling ourselves with a feast. Not an ideal dinner date for someone on a budget, but if you’re trying to go out, get a little fancy and impress guests, this is the place Adeira Sherpa / Oak Leaf for you.

The burrata at Jackson’s Bar and Oven in Railroad Square: warm mozzarella cheese with honey and pistachios served with warm pizza bread. Add salami of the day for a protein packed treat.

Meet Miss Sonoma County 2018 Kylie Minogue, “Golden” review Meghan Buckman Social Media Editor Tyler-Avery Lewis, 22, is the newly crowned Miss Sonoma County. Lewis, a Rohnert Park native, studies dance at Santa Rosa Junior College. We got the chance to speak with Lewis about winning the crown, growing up in Sonoma County and being an SRJC student.

Q: Why did you choose the platform (Miss Sonoma County) to run on?

Tyler-Avery: I started out choosing bullying as my platform topic. However, I changed it because I felt like while bullying is something very near and dear to my heart, I needed a platform that would provide change to my community as a whole for the betterment of all its citizens.

The inclusion of African-American literature in Sonoma County schools is important because I believe that there is a clear division between African-Americans and their Caucasian counterparts when it comes to learning.

When I attended remedial school, I was never really taught about Africans or African-Americans and the part they played in history. This caused me to not understand how important my people were and the price my ancestors paid for me to get where I am today. If African or African-American literature was included in school, the chasm that has been perpetuated between Eurocentric society and that of African-Americans, as well as all people of color, can be closed because we as a whole would understand each other better.

I also am aiming to distinguish the fact that people of color should not be dehumanized in texts, conversations, or in the media. We have a voice too and we are going to be heard.

Q: How did being a student at SRJC help you in the pageant, if at all?

Tyler-Avery: Being a student of Santa Rosa Junior College, I have had the opportunity to be a part of the learning community Umoja and be a part of leadership for the Black Student Union as the vice-president. Having this background before competing had prepared me for the possibility of being Miss Sonoma County. In Umoja and in BSU, we are seen as spokespeople for our community; we speak and try to make a difference in our community.

Being crowned Miss Sonoma County today and throughout this year, I will do this on a larger scale because I am essentially the face of Sonoma County. While it is a privilege, it is also a great responsibility. I am the voice of people who fear they do not have one and the ear when everyone else is not listening; having those experiences at SRJC taught me how and why it is important to be that person.

Q: What does it mean to you to be an SRJC student and from this community?

Tyler-Avery: I am grateful to be awarded this title and opportunity. I’ve lived in Sonoma County my entire life. Twentytwo years of growth and achievements based on my environment. I turned my nightmares into a dream most would love to live and the dream I am excited to see come to fruition.

My time at SRJC propelled me forward in many different ways, giving me differ-

Dakota McGranahan Co-Photo-Editor

Courtesy of Sam Minniefield

SRJC student Tyler-Avery Lewis (front) wins the crown of Miss Sonoma County on March 4.

ent opportunities to apply myself in arenas I never thought were possible until recently. I know that if I were attending any other junior college, I would be without these opportunities, so I am thankful that I am here and that these things are working themselves out for my benefit.

Q: What is the next step for you after Miss Sonoma County? Miss California?

Tyler-Avery: After fulfilling my year of service to the best of my ability, I plan to transfer to a four-year college and fulfill my dreams of getting my BFA, then my MFA in dance.

If I win Miss California, I will aim to be the best representative I can be for my state. However, if I am not awarded the title of Miss California, I look forward to coming back to Sonoma County and finishing out my year, applying myself the best I can and aiding the community in any capacity I am needed.

Emulating the likes of Gwen Stefani, Britney Spears and Madonna, Kylie Minogue revitalizes the sound of past pop divas into a fresh and modern new album.

Minogue outshines the rest in her album “Golden” and redefines what it means to be an icon. With the influences of country and EDM, “Golden” touches upon the more fragile side of Minogue in a light-hearted and celebratory tone.

“Stop Me from Falling” is one of the most noticeable style changes Minogue undergoes in her new album, as she combines common pop beats with country lyrics and soft banjo strings.

However on the album’s titular track, “Golden,” Minogue accomplishes something never before attempted by the previous pop artist: a powerful ballad. Amongst all of the reinvention, Minogue manages to capture a glimpse of simplicity through her lyrics and lullaby-like voice.

But sharp pivots are not unfamiliar to Minogue. It comes as no surprise that within her 30-year career Minogue has gone through many phases in her life.

“Golden” ties them all together.

She has reinvented herself with every album, but “Golden” outshines them all.

With a fresh look and sound, she’s still the same sweet and sensual Kylie we all once knew in “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” yet more refined, free-spirited and honest than before.

In “A Lifetime to Repair,” she mixes common country twang with house bass

drops as she depicts her broken heart after another failed relationship.

“How I wish I never cared, been turned and twisted, oh I swear,” she sings in between an abrupt bass drop and soft fiddle, in a Kylie-esque style only she can pull off.

“Golden” is the culmination of heartbreak that Minogue embodies with her own persona.

After an emotional breakdown and a retreat from stardom, Minogue reemerges from the darkness brighter than ever. Her new persona shines through in songs like “Live a Little” and “Dancing.”

Both the lyrics and tone compliment this new Kylie, showing off her free-spirited personality and let-it-go mindset.

But in “Shelby ‘68,” Minogue shifts gears once more. The rocky waters of love appear to be smooth sailing to Minogue as she sings about the sweet simplicity of life.

This small window into her life reveals her country roots, rock-and-roll soul and pop persona that shines through every crevice of “Golden,” but most importantly, it reveals the true thesis of the album: Kylie’s fighting spirit and forgiving heart.

Opinion aside, one thing is true: Minogue is riding the increasingly popular trend of mixing genres.

In November of 2017, Taylor Swift released “reputation,” an album that mixed pop music with hip-hop and rap rhythm, and in March rapper XXXTENTACION released “?” an album that unequivocally collides pop and rap culture.

So while Minogue’s country phase may be short-lived, it will be forever cherished.

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