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 153, Issue 1
TheGuardsman.com
January 25- February 7, 2012
A BUG IN THE SYSTEM (Part 1)
A computer virus trolled banking information from City College students for over a decade. Tens of thousands of students’ financial information may have been stolen.
This is how it happened. A Guardsman first! Hand drawn, fully illustrated news story on Reporting by Joe Fitzgerald, Art by Jessica Kwan
ON THE INSIDE CULTURE: CITY COLLEGE STUDENT ART SPOTLIGHT Page 5
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Final Report by the Student Success Task Force unanimously approved in January
COLUMN: ESCAPE FROM CITY COLLEGE
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MATT LAMBERT/ THE GUARDSMAN
One of dozens of speakers at the California Community Colleges Board of Governors meeting January 9, City College student Fly Benzo talks about his educational experiences and questions the Task Force’s definition of ‘student success’. By Sara Bloomberg THE GUARDSMAN
SPORTS: WOMENS BASKETBALL’S NARROW VICTORY Page 8
With only two abstentions, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors has unanimously approved the adoption of the final recommendations of the Student Success Task Force, setting in motion the implementation of a controversial new set of rules. A lively crowd of over 100 people, including more than two dozen City College students and faculty, assembled Jan. 9 in Sacramento at the board’s meeting chambers in the Capitol building to testify for and against the adop-
tion of what the State Chancellor’s Office described as an historic set of reforms for community colleges in California. Chancellor Jack Scott commended the work by the Task Force which was established in January 2011 by SB 1143 and entrusted with the responsibility of assessing “student success” in California in order to develop a plan for increasing transfer, graduation and degree completion rates for community college students. The Task Force was also charged with examining ways to prioritize funding for students to achieve their stated goals. “I can’t tell you how hard and
how wonderfully the Task Force worked and how much discussion they engendered,” said Scott, though he acknowledged, “there’s no claim for perfection.” Opposing viewpoints Opponents of the decision worry that the Task Force’s recommendations will lead to the explicit rationing of education, increased student debt via loans, decreased access and equity for the most vulnerable students, and reduced local autonomy for colleges. “The report does not provide evidence-based examinations of the issues, nor does it explore the probable consequences from
the major changes it proposes,” claims City College Academic Senate President Karen Saginor. Saginor foresees that recommendation 8.3 will lead to test preparation in lieu of actual instruction and recommendations 3.1 and 7.3 will lead to skewed statistics regarding completion rates if students are forced to indicate long-term goals that they have no intention of completing. Saginor explains that by tying unit caps to BOG Fee Waiver eligibility, as laid out in recommendation 3.2, poorer students who reach the 110 unit limit TASK FORCE Page 3