Vol. 168, Issue 1 | August 28 – September 11, 2019 | City College of San Francisco | Since 1935 | FREE
City College Professor and Students Report Racist Harassment By Caoilinn Goss cgoss2@mail.ccsf.edu
Two students orchestrated a racist disruption in a class on diversity taught by Dr. David Ga’oupu Palaita, Ph.D in June, threatening the instructor and insisting that the course should not be taught at all and that Palaita had a genetically inferior intellect. Palaita cited the attack on himself and his classroom at the June 29 Board of Trustees meeting in an appeal to the Board of Trustees not to cut the school’s Interdisciplinary Studies departments by a third.
Professor David Palaita of the Interdisciplinary Studies department. Photo by Cassie Ordonio / The Guardsman
“This is not a time to consolidate, especially at a time when around our country, nationally, our political climate empowers and emboldens people,” Palaita insisted in his address to the board. Palaita, who has taught at City College for 12 years, co-founded the Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies Program. He also teaches in the Diversity and Social Justice Program. Both programs may lose their departmental status under new budget cuts. In an interview published on Youtube by The Labor Video Project, Dr. Palaita further described the June incident. “We had students enroll into my racism class for the purpose of disrupting it. They’re students that are from fringe organizations that do not believe in diversity. They do not believe that other communities, particularly communities of color, belong in spaces of education.” According to Palaita, the Pacific Studies Program at City College has graduated more students in the major than even the University of Hawaii. Other colleges have followed City College’s example and created Pacific Studies departments, ranging as widely as UCLA, the College of San Mateo, and the University of Washington. The broader academic arena, Palaita asserted, is “looking to our program to lead and to provide support to these communities.” “I want the Board of Trustees to know that if you weaken and consolidate our Ethnic Studies Programs, you will lend this power to those students,” Palaita concluded in his statement to the board.
The disruption in Palaita’s June class is not an isolated incident. “They send me emails with articles. One constructed an essay explaining in an academic way why I should not be teaching, why these classes on ethnic studies and courses on diversity and social justice should not be taught because the work we do does not debunk the science. That we should continue to adhere to genetic policies around the superiority of those who are considered biologically white,” Palaita said. “These students are very deliberate. They continue to harass me.” Students have experienced harassment as well. On Wednesday Aug. 25, at midday during the first week of classes, the Guardsman’s own Anshi Aucar was accosted while walking to class near the athletic fields. The driver of a passing car shouted racial slurs at her because she was ostensibly in his way. “He tried to intimidate me by driving backwards,” Aucar said, “trying to say that he would hurt me or try to run me over.” “The sad part about this is that this isn’t the first time that this has happened. It is the first time that it happened to me on campus,” Aucar said. Palaita expressed similar sentiments, stating, “I am shocked. I am not surprised.” When asked what City College students and faculty can do to combat the creep of racism into campus culture, Palaita stated, “I think faculty and students are doing what they can. I can tell you what the board of trustees should not do is eliminate those departments.”
City College Administrators Eliminate More than 200 Courses During Summer Break By Anshi Aucar While trying to balance the budget, City College Administrators cut more than 200 classes during the summer, preventing students from being able to register for and attend those classes this fall. From Fall of 2018 to Fall of 2019, 307 course sections were lost and 135 classes were eliminated completely. During a summer Board of Trustees meeting, Chancellor Rocha announced that 200 more “low-enrolled” courses would be eliminated six weeks before they were scheduled to begin, which has prevented courses from reaching the contractually protected 20 students minimum that the Board of Trustees had previously established. However, the 20 students minimum has proven to not be a definite measure of whether or not a class can be cut from the schedule. Aircraft 10, an aircraft metals course was cut, in spite of the fact that the class was full and had maxed out its 10 student waitlist. Vice Chancellor Dianna Gonzales said that because of “budgetary reasons” the administration can waive the AFT2121 contract provision protecting classes with 20 or more students. According to the college’s 2019 budget, City College is shown to have a surplus of around $1.5-$2 million dollars. Although, some students believe that the claim of a negative budget is irrelevent when speaking about student success; “The Chancellor needs to reevaluate where he is spending the money, instead of having the students pay for it. And to see if there is a leak of money somewhere. He has to check to see why students are paying for it instead of budgeting correctly
if there is a surplus” said student volunteer Helen. Counselor Jorge Avila said “What my previous Dean had told me was that some of these classes were necessary. Some classes aren’t funded by the state. The school has to provide the cost to fund these classes and if the school doesn’t have any money, they can’t pay the instructor and it makes it hard to keep the classes open.” In years past, printed versions of the Fall schedule were published weeks in advance, however this summer, the schedule failed to appear before class registration for Fall 2019 began. When the schedule was finally printed, students received an email stating “Printed Class Schedules are available at each City College Center and the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library”. This upset many students, as they believe this breaches the education equity gap City College is looking to close: “I was upset that I had to enroll in my classes and the print schedule was not out yet. And when it did come out, it took a while to find. I spoke to many of my classmates who also had the same issue,” said Sylvia Luna, a Mission Campus student. The actual printed schedule contains no index besides the 120 pages of classes, which has led students to believe registration is being made even more inaccessible. “I tried to register for classes, but it seemed that all the classes were full and when I got waitlisted for one of them. I later found out that it was cancelled! Even throughout the process, Web4 wasn’t working correctly. And later on when I was able to register for my class, I had to rearrange my schedule so I could be in that class. Which is extremely frustrating,” said former Skyline College student Mauricio.
International Counselor Department Dissolved By Matheus Maynard mmaynardfrank@aol.com
City College’s Board of Trustees approved the layoff of international counselors over the summer amid concerns of budget deficits, leaving international student affairs to the discretion of regular academic counselors. Students with F1 visa status must meet certain requirements in regards to studying in the United States according to the USCIS, and for this reason, City College designated a separate counseling program to assist international students. Even with City College administrators assuring F1 students that they won’t be affected by this change, some F1 students are deeply concerned with the future of their education at City College. Brazilian international student, Rodrigo Chen said “I don’t necessarily think counselors affect my decisions over my educational path, however, I feel sympathetic towards my fellow international students because some might need instruction and guidance to understand the college system in the U.S.” The main requirements to keep F1 students’ status at City College is “to take a minimum of 12 units, maintain a GPA of 2.0, and to have satisfactory progress towards their academic programs” according to the Office of International Programs. In the case of unsatisfactory progress and GPA, international students are put on probation and assigned an international counselor to oversee their case and guide them through the work to bring their status back to satisfactory again. International student Davi Luo said, “I think it is not fair with international students to have a service destined to them to be cut since we pay a lot of money to be here.” Dean of International Education, Dr. Vinicio Lopez explained that “International (F-1) visa students have always been able to see all counselors at CCSF. Any CCSF counselor can meet with students regarding the Educational Plans. That is what they are qualified and trained to do. This has not changed! Any issue related to F-1 students (I-20 questions, visas, Optional Practical Training (OPT), working on campus, extensions, Immigration requirements, etc) is handled by the Designated School Officials (DSOs) or Primary Designated School Official (PDSO).” Students, both domestic and international, are concerned with the increase of the wait time to see a counselor that could happen to this merge and diminishment in the number of counselors available. “I don’t think cutting core student services is an effective way to save money in an educational institution,” said Luo.
Illustration by Chiara Di Martino