THE SKYLINE VIEW The Voice of Skyline College, San Bruno, Calif.
March 2, 2022
theskylineview.com
Issue 1
Skyline students to embellish a communal area with murals After five years, the mural painting class is back to paint another community-based project By Christian Carlo Ceguerra Copy Editor
Art professor Amir Esfahani’s ART 221 class is partnering with a nearby community to complete a community-based mural project that aims to beautify and depict the culture and history of a San Mateo neighborhood this semester. Esfahani, who teaches digital art and gallery practicum among other art courses, spearheaded the inception of the class at Skyline College through his love with graffiti art. With the help of the Center for Innovative Practices through Hip Hop Education & Research (CIPHER), his passion to teach graffiti transcended from Rock the School Bell’s workshop to a formal art course. “As time went on, I started seeing that the aesthetic of the younger generation, the things that they like, most of it is really influenced by graffiti art,” Esfahani said. “This was a chance that I thought, ‘Well, I can introduce them to that kind of thing in a safe environment, where they won’t get in trouble.’” For him, the Community Mural Project (CMP) is important as it allows students to go and engage with communities to create visual representation based on “what they want,” while exposing them to the craft. Some instructors have to fight
tooth and nail to have their class authorized or approved, but for Esfahani, he said that the administration has been supportive in offering back the class. For now, the class would only be painting murals in various communities, but he said that the administration’s also open to the idea of having a mural wall on the campus. “When I mentioned the mural on campus wall, the last administration, they actually didn’t want me to do that, but this administration, they’re all for it,” Esfahani said. Esfahani mentioned how the CMP also aligns with Skyline College President Dr. Melissa Moreno’s People’s College Initiative, which gives great importance for the students to value civic engagement. “This new murals on-campus class, we want to start having other communities come to our college to not just us go out to schools, but then have people come to our college here,” Esfahani said, explaining how this would allow students to have the chance to paint murals on campus and represent their communities. In 2020, Skyline College granted the project the President’s Innovation Fund, which amounts to at least $25,000. This allows the class to be zero-text-
Christian Carlo Ceguerra/The Skyline View
Professor Amir Esfahani prepares the color palette his class would use for their grid and scaling exercise.
book cost and be more accessible for students with tight budgets as materials are derived from the grant. This is the first time the class was offered on a Saturday, which Esfahani said that he is okay with as it allowed students of different ages who are busy during the weekdays to join. Mauli Vora works as an engineer during the weekdays, so she is most happy that she gets to be in Esfahani’s art class every Saturday. “I have always liked colors, painting, but I never learned before,” Vora said. “So, this, I feel was a wonderful class to start.” Juyoung Ku, who goes by Jay, is a Skyline College alum and a BFA
graduate from San Jose State University, opted to audit the class. “Whoever teachers that I felt like, left an impression or an impact in my art, I usually try to keep in touch with,” Jay said. “Amir is one of those teachers that influenced me a lot, and I look up to him, he helped me out a lot.” In previous semesters, the CMP partnered with Daly City to paint electrical boxes around the area, as well as the Thomas Edison Elementary School Mural for their kindergarten classes. They also participated at the Michael B. Jordan (MBJAM) in 2017 and 2018 to raise aware-
ness of and funds for Lupus LA. Esfahani said that they are looking for a place where students can get to easily, where they can park and bring equipment, which wall has a smooth texture and where students would have more opportunity for creative freedom. For this semester, the class is eyeing painting murals to one of the four nearby areas in San Mateo County: Sellick Park, Alta Loma Park, and Airport Alcove in South San Francisco and also the Millbrae Elementary School District. Esfahani expects to do the production by early to mid-April once the designs and mockups are done and their pitch is approved by their partnered community.
People’s College Initiative aims to democratize campus The plan consists of four major campus constituents to create change By Steven Rissotto Editor-in-chief
As the spring semester begins, Skyline College continues to move forward with a new program focused on transforming the school into a healthier learning environment. The People’s College Initiative (PCI) is a campus-wide plan developed by Skyline President Dr. Melissa Moreno, which was first introduced last semester. The idea revolves around the college’s goal to address challenges in a different way — one that involves almost every major council on campus. To create more transparency and access within the administration, the PCI has focused on key issues to improve the quality of the decision-making processes. As a part of the democratically-run system, four major goals accompany the initiative. “I started thinking about the principles upon which community college and the whole system was built on: principles of democracy,” Moreno said. “And we were not functioning as a democracy at Skyline. Now we are and we’re starting to get the democratic wheels turning.” Creating an antiracist and equitable culture has been a top priority, along with the act of engaging in climate reviews to make sure Skyline’s environmental transformation is up to par with the current scientific suggestions. An emphasis has
The Lotus Blossom visualizes the process and newly revamped system.
also been placed on graduating students with civic mindsets. In doing so, participatory governance was formed to make sure each possible organization on campus was heard. The four main senates and councils that make up the College Governance Council: Associated Students (ASCC) are Classified Senate (CS) Academic Senate (AS) Management Council (MC). The Classified Senate is responsible for representing the needs, concerns and viewpoints of classified employees at Skyline. The senate raises money for scholarships, produces lesson plans for staff professional developments and provides other general support.
“The classified professionals are excited to be part of this initiative and engage in this critical work in improving our campus culture; becoming an antiracist institution, and developing a civic mindset for our students,” said Sherrie Prasad, president of the CS. “We look forward to helping to create an open and transparent environment where our classified voices will be heard and be able to make an impact.” When she took over as president in June 2020, Moreno embarked on a year-long listening tour for any noticeable discussion regarding how to improve the campus. In her investigation, she uncovered that many believed there was secrecy and one-way communication happening within the school, creating a strong anti-faculty and anti-admin-
Skyline College
istration sentiment. A negative climate report was sent to Moreno’s desk on her first day as president, a survey that is infamous and usually kept out of the public eye. Moreno, however, released the information for all to see. The move was among the first to trigger transparency with the administration as a key item touched on in the PCI and they feel they’ve been more accessible. “All of us in the administration are walking the campus and joining students and college hour trying to just be way more approachable and accessible,” Moreno said. In the first year, Moreno dismantled her cabinet’s votes during College Governance
meetings. Since it’s a body that recommends ideas and plans to the president, Moreno felt she was “double-dipping” if the hierarchy wasn’t rebuilt. Skyline created a diagram of a lotus blossom that visualizes the process and newly revamped system. The college feels that the blossom is symbolic in describing the transformation of the school through the work of the PCI. All of the petals on the design are centered around the aspect of community engagement. “We are excited to engage in the work with the long-term goal of transparency and increased participatory governance campus-wide,” said Lindsey Ayotte, Academic Senate president and communications professor. “The conversations I have been a part of are looking at the past, and reimagining what a healthy campus climate can and should look like moving forward for students and employees.” The AS focuses on the philosophy related to all things education. They tend to discuss policies related to grading, curricula, and other development matters. Ayotte says the PCI meetings are in full force and have begun discussing many of the key issues related to campus. “My goal is to create a future for Skyline that is sustainable, that is created by the people, with the people, for the people that sustain, that’s democratic, that’s fair, that listens to people’s voices far after I’m gone,” Moreno said.