C I T Y C O L L E G E O F S A N F R A N C I S C O ’ S N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 9 3 5
Volume 152, Issue 8
TheGuardsman.com
December 6, 2011
COMMUNITY COLLEGES PROMISE:
WE WILL FIGHT College groups across California condemn the Student Success Task Force’s agenda to dismantle schools
-Special Statewide Editorial-
California’s Fight Against the Task Force
CCSF BOARD SAYS NO TO TASK FORCE City College of San Francisco board of Trustees unanimously denounced Task Force at their Nov. meeting.
AARP DEFENDS ELDERLY STUDENTS The AARP CA office claims the Task Force recommendations are unfair to senior citizen students.
Over a dozen other community college newspapers across the state are publishing similar editorials against the recomendations of the Student Success Task Force between Dec. 1 and Dec. 14. Visit TheGuardsman.com for a full list of our sister newspapers in the fight. The California Community College Student links to private businesses that are questionable to “Success” Task Force is a name that parodies itself. say the least. Ten out of fourteen of Lumina’s board The Task Force, charged with streamlining colleges members have ties to the student loan industry — a across California, has assembled an eighty-page sure sign that they should not be trusted. document that will tear apart the community We cannot let the one percent take away Calicollege system as we know it. fornia’s most accessible means of upward mobility. The Task Force’s report is meant to influence The Task Force is aiming to have all of its Sacramento politicians. The report and the recom- proposals written into legislation by January 2012. mendations within it, unless we say otherwise, will This isn’t just a matter of politics — red versus blue, be taken as the official word of the students and republican versus democrat — or part of some faculty of California’s community colleges on how frivolous bar-room argument on what our values in we want to be funded. We can’t let that happen. education should be. The report recommends eliminating non-credit In as little as a year, the legislation enacted by courses, creating one-size-fits-all placement tests the Task Force recommendations would wreck the for California’s diverse student population, strip- lives of over 200,000 Californian students: your ping local college boards of their power, gouging neighbors, your family, your friends and any Calistudents returning for their second degrees, and fornian who has ever held the dream of a college requiring any student not transferring to a univer- degree. sity within a strict two-year deadline to pay outraNow is the time to take action. geously expensive out-of-state fees. We at The Guardsman want to arm you in this The Task Force recommendations will benefit fight against the one percent: inside this issue we higher-income students more, while students who have a pullout section showing you every proposal attend part-time and work while attending school made by the Task Force, and on the front page is a will be hit hardest. list of phone numbers and emails so that you can let These recommendations would close off higher the government know that you support community education to California’s 99 percent and slam the colleges. door shut in their faces. Join us by calling your government represenThe Student Success Task Force is funded tative, using contact information we’ve provided, almost entirely by private interests, including the between the dates of December 7 and January 30. Lumina Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Find your voice, take a stand, and join the CaliFoundation, and the David and Lucile Packard fornia community college system in the most critiFoundation. cal battle it has ever faced: the battle for the soul of Some of these non-profit foundations have our education.
HOW YOU CAN HELP LA TEACHERS SAY “TRY AGAIN” Los Angeles ESL professors say that the Task Force needs to do a lot more research to get things right. http://youtu. be/7rWhyhbZFFI
POINT FOR POINT CRITIQUE Douglas R. Garrison, EdD. Superintendent/President of Monterey Peninsula College sent out a point for point critique of the Task Force’s recommendations.
EDITED BY BETH LABERGE / COURTESY OF D-MAPS.COM
Make public comment on Task Force recommendations with your Facebook account: http://studentsuccess.ideascale.com/ Sign a petition against the Task Force: http://tinyurl.com/c3aj4kc Tell these politicans that you don’t want California community colleges to become “transfermachines.” Email at least once and together we can make an impact. CC ksaginor@ccsf.edu so she counts your comments. CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE CHANCELLOR JACK SCOTT Through assistant Faye James: fjames@cccco.edu GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN Email: http://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php
SADDLEBACK SPEAKS OUT EOPS students from SoCal colleges speak out against the Task Force recommendations at a town hall meeting at Saddleback College Nov. 8. http://youtu. be/7rWhyhbZFFI
READ THE TASK FORCE REPORT http://tinyurl.com/4ycbn5n More contact information on page 10
Check out our inside center section for further explanation of the Student Success Task Force’s attack on City College students.