Vol. 155, Issue 4, March 6-March 19, 2013 cIty college of san francIsco | sInce 1935 | theguardsMan.coM | @sfBreakIngnews

On the INSIDE:

Page 2: Librarian named Full-time Faculty of the Year

Page 4: Q&A with AFT President Alisa Messer

Page 5: Faculty salaries, the budget and enrollment compared

Page 6: Should Prop. 8 be overturned?

About 150 students, faculty, and staff members gathered for a rally organized by members of the Save CCSF Coalition outside Ocean campus’ Ram Plaza on Feb. 21 to protest the circumstances surround-ing City College’s precarious accreditation status.

“The Students united, will never be divided,” said Oscar Pena, an associated student council senator, as he engaged the crowd by starting the rally with the chant.

Participants held a sign that read, “Save City College from the 1% Education for the 99%.”

“Education is a civil, democratic, and human right and we will fight anyone who wants to take that away from us,” City College student Michael Madden said.

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges put City College on show cause in July 2012, but its previous report in 2006 designated the school as being in good standing.

One of the coalition’s demands was to speak out against City College being put on “show cause” without prior sanction, and to call on the Department of Education to take action and stop the commission’s misuse of the accreditation process.

A sign at the rally read, “73% of SF voted to save CCSF not privatize it,” referring to the passing of Proposition A in November.

After the rally students marched around

Cloud Circle and then into Conlan Hall where Interim Chancellor Thelma Scott-Skillman’s office is located. They were told that the chancellor was away at a conference when they asked to speak with her and pres-ent some demands, which included calling on the Board of Trustees to reverse all cuts to classes, services, staff and faculty, to stop downsizing the mission of City College and to promote equity.

“With them cutting back [resource center hours], it is really hard for me to get my assignments done on time, and I am suffering along with a lot of other students,” Sherron Anita, a DSPS student at City College, said.

Vice Chancellor Peter Goldstein was

present and addressed the crowd.“I am not in a position to speak for [the

chancellor],” he said. “I think this college had done a good job at teaching, but the accrediting commission has the power.”

A group of about 30 students staged a sit-in at Conlan Hall and refused to leave until a meeting was arranged with the chan-cellor. They stayed overnight and in the morning secured a meeting with her for the following Monday.

“I thought the rally was good, but I wish more students and teachers would have come out,” student Rebeca Prieto said. “The students who were here had good words of wisdom and inspired other students.”

On Feb. 25 City College Interim Chan-cellor Thelma Scott-Skillman, special trust-ee Bob Agrella, and three representatives from the administration met with five of the students that participated in the sit-in. The students were not satisfied with the results of the meeting because they were told that their demands could not be met.

The chancellor sent a campus-wide email explaining why the demands could not be met, and the protest has brought even more negative attention to City College.

The Save CCSF Coalition has organized another rally on March 14 at Civic Center at 4 p.m.

City College Art Gallery entertained some celebrity when it invited renowned San Francis-co-based artists Chris Johanson, Barry McGee and Laurie Reid for a collaborative exhibition which opened Feb. 21.

The show and reception was filled with students, aspiring artists and various acquaintanc-es of the artists, reinforcing the reputation of the department for having well-attended events.

“They’re the most success-ful artists we ever worked with,” Gallery Director and art instruc-tor Nancy Mizuno Elliott said.

The three artists had attended City College together in the late 1980s and ‘90s.

Johanson and Reid had their

work chosen for the prestigious Whitney Biennial, one of the most prestigious shows in the art world.

All three artists were award-ed San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) award, and all three were in the inaugural 1997 Bay Area Now exhibition.

The City College Art Gallery exhibit, which features the artists’ collaborative and solo work in multiple mediums of print, water-color and hand-drawn segments, to name a few, strives to capture the intimacy and interconnected-ness of students and their experi-ences at City College.

“There are students here, and there are these people that I saw from all these different time peri-ods of my life living in San Fran-cisco,” Johanson said, voicing his excitement in attending the exhi-

bition. “You can really see how art connects people through your time.”

Indeed, the connection shows through the orientation of the works, which were arranged by the artists themselves just before the opening of the gallery.

The display showcases a sort of childlike dialogue between Reid, Johanson and McGee that speaks to their roots. In broken yarn, self-portraits and minimalist sketches, the three artists communicated a spirit of collaboration.

“It was really just about what-ever developed,” Reid said. “I loved that. That freedom to go where it goes. It’s stimulating. It talks into parts of me that I don’t normally talk into myself. For me, the collaborative work brings out sides of me that my own work doesn’t always. I just love that. It’s so fun.”

In the vein of the ongoing City College accreditation crisis, the three artists were especially vocal.

“I was talking to somebody here that thinks if it did get really bad, it could be a free-form utopia school, which could be interesting also,” McGee said. “Where people

would just volunteer to teach in a very San Franciscan way.”

Johanson also praised City College.

“A lot of my first art classes I ever took were here,” Johanson

By Jandean Deocampo THE GUARDSMAN / JDEOCAMPO@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @BANANAISAFRUIT

By Cassandra Hendry THE GUARDSMAN / CHENDRY@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @SONGE2011

Ralliers demand accountability Seek unity against change mad in name of accreditation

Accreditation

Gallery opening

Alumni reflect on shared experiences

Vice Chancellor of Finances and Administra-tion Peter Goldstein tells protestors at Con-lan Hall on Feb. 21, 2013 that the chancellor cannot meet with them because she is at a conference. Photo by Lucas Almeida/The Guardsman

Protestors march around Cloud Circle on Ocean campus on Feb. 21, 2013. Photo by Lucas Almeida/The Guardsman

Chris Johanson, Barry Mcgee and Laurie Reid show their artwork at the Art Gallery. Feb 21, 2013.Photo by Juan Pardo/The Guardsman

GALLERY: PAGE 2

news 2 | the guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013

Follow us on Twitter: @sfbreakingnews

Legislation for CCSFLegislation was introduced in

the State Assembly on Feb. 22 that would provide emergency funds to community colleges expe-riencing low enrollment while under probation or show cause sanctions from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

Known as Assembly Bill 1199, it is sponsored by Assem-blyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino and could get sent to committee as early as March 26, according to the legislature’s website. (Sara Bloomberg)

Mural plannedCity College’s Art department,

along with Lick-Wilmerding High School and the Ocean Avenue Association are in the planning stages of a potential mural to be depicted on Ocean Avenue’s retaining wall.

The committee, including City College’s Nancy Elliott and

Lick-Wilmerding’s Christy Godi-nez, is currently delegating on issues involving space, involve-ment, the nature of the mural and most importantly, funding.

Potential muralists include not only City College and Lick-Wilmerding students but also celebrated artists Chris Johanson and Barry McGee.

Johanson and McGee recently visited the college for a collab-orative exhibition at the Ocean Campus’ art gallery.

“We’re just trying to work out the budget,” said Elliott, an artist and member of the Art depart-ment faculty. “We’ll see what happens.” (Jandean Deocampo)

Bomb ScareA suspicious package was

reported to police on Feb. 28 at Riordan High School and traffic was blocked for a couple of hours along Phelan and Judson Avenues until police determined there was no bomb threat.

City College was not evacu-ated and there was no immediate threat to the college, police offi-cials said.

Police received a report short-ly after 11 a.m. of a suspicious bag in a Riordan High restroom on Phelan Avenue.

As rumors of a bomb spread inside the high school, someone pulled the fire alarm and students

and teachers filed out onto the school’s football field.

“We were going to our third class of the day and we heard the fire alarm go off. So we evacuated the building and treated it like a regular fire drill,” Pete Hernandez, a student at the high school said.

Police, firefighters and a bomb squad with a team of bomb-sniffing dogs arrived at the scene

just after noon. Firefighters were unaware of the specifics of the situation when they were called.

“I thought it was a protest [at first],” firefighter John Chung said. As of 1:30 p.m., Chung still hadn’t been told anything.

By 2:15 p.m., students and teachers were told that there was no threat.

“There was no bomb,” Capt. Tim Falvey of the Ingleside police station said. “But there was a student’s gym bag that was mistaken for one.”

Neither school officials nor police alerted parents about the incident until hours after the initial report to police. Many parents and siblings of Riordan students at City College and in the area were distressed due to the lack of communication.

City College student Ana Ortiz witnessed the police approach the scene.

“I saw cop cars speeding up to Phelan Avenue from Geneva [Avenue], and they were followed by a large truck that was marked bombsquad on the side,” Ortiz said. (Alex Lamp)

World Briefs will return in Issue 5

said. “There’s a diversity of people that go to school here. It’s a really great place, as a young adult, to learn about life and art-making at the same time. I could never have afforded to go anywhere else.”

As part of their gesture in creating an exhibition, the artists also collaborated on a print which was reproduced and sold at the reception to support the college, along with T-shirts that called for

“art classes for the masses.”“(Almost) Free Formed: Cele-

brating Old Days and Hoping for New Times at CCSF” will be on display at the Ocean campus Art Gallery until March 20.

College Briefs

GALLERY: FROM PAGE 1

The San Francisco Police Department’s Bomb Squad and Firefighters are called in to Archbishop Riordan High School after a report of a suspi-cious bag that was located inside a bathroom on Feb. 2, 2013. Photo by Santiago Mejia / The Guardsman.

the guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013 | 3

Editor-in-ChiefSara Bloomberg

Managing EditorGina Scialabba

Photo EditorsLeslie CalderonSantiago Mejia

Sports EditorLucas Pontes de Almeida

Associate Sports EditorIvan Huang

Advertising EditorCecilia Ren

Layout/Design ConsultantDavid Hackett

Copy ChiefPatrick Tamayo

Copy EditorsAlex Reyes

Dalton AmadorJen Verzosa

Staff WritersJandean Deocampo

Dalton AmadorAlex ReyesCecilia Ren

Lavinia PisaniMadeline Collins

Alex Lamp Mckenna Toston

Cassandra HendryDan Harrington

Jackson LyJen VerzosaJulio MoranZack Tobita

Minter McHugh

Staff PhotographersShane MenezClarivel Fong

Juan Pardo

Faculty AdvisorJuan Gonzales

Mail:50 Phelan Ave Box V-67

San Francisco, CA 94112

Phone:(415) 239-3446

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news

news

He chose to make a difference. Chose to get

a degree. To learn new skills. And it was all

made possible by the National Guard.

THIS MOMENT BEGAN WITH

A CHOICE.

Contact Sergeant Allen Loretz at 415.748.60281-800-GO-GUARD

10BW-04_4x8_Loretz.indd 1 1/8/13 1:58 PM

Guardsman

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMMITTING FEDERAL CRIMES (for 29 years)? by Leland Yoshitsu -        1.

,.

7   –  

Members of the Save CCSF Coalition organized a peaceful demonstration on Feb. 28 to draw attention to the college’s accredi-tation crisis, while simultaneously voicing concern over some of the changes being implemented to satisfy the Accrediting Commis-sion for Community and Junior Colleges.

A crowd of more than 100 demonstrators arranged them-selves into a “human billboard” as cars passed by.

“I’m here for equity,” said Nate Gallagher, a Media Studies student and member of the Media Committee for Save CCSF. “The students that are going to be most impacted by the cuts are students of color.”

Students and teachers wore heart badges and stood in bike lanes to wave signs at passing cars, prompting them to “Honk for CCSF!” A loud brass band and a chorus line of improvised singers accompanied the demonstrators.

There were a few contrary opinions voiced.

“I like what Nanette Asimov writes,” City College student Ian Goldenberg said. “She’s telling the

truth about this place [...] What people should be protesting is to insist that the school do what is necessary to meet the standards of the accrediting board. They hold all the cards.”

However, the vocalization of protest far outweighed the dissenting opinions.

“City College needs to stay the way it is and continue to thrive as a college for everybody,” said Nancy Kato, a City College student and an organizer with the San Fran-cisco chapter of Radical Women. “[The accrediting committee] wants to limit it and make it for a smaller group of people, and that’s not right.”

Others echoed Kato’s opin-ions.

“I’m here to call the Board of Trustees to accountability because they’re letting our interim admin-istrators set the agenda,” Wendy Kaufman, an engineering instruc-tor, said. “They’re intentionally trying to downsize this school.”

After an hour of activity and the affirmative blaring of pass-ing cars, the protesters marched down Ocean Avenue to the Multi-Use Building on Phelan Avenue, where the Board of Trustees had scheduled a 6 p.m. meeting.

As suddenly as it had started, the demonstration drew to a close.

City College’s Academic Senate Presi-dent and Librarian Karen Saginor was honored with the Full-Time Faculty Member of the Year Award by the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges during its annual Advocacy & Policy Conference in Sacramento.

Elected A.S. president in 2010, Sagi-nor’s responsibilities include overseeing the senate’s Executive Council and making recommendations to the Board of Trustees on topics ranging from curriculum and academic programs to grading policies and degree requirements. The A.S. is the governing body for all faculty.

During 2011, she was also instrumen-tal in compiling reports that analyzed the potential effects of the Student Success Task Force’s recommendations, which was adopted by the Board of Governors in January 2012 and signed into law five months later.

“I am very grateful to my colleagues for nominating me and thinking I am worthy of this honor,” Saginor said. “Although, with so much happening here at City College, it is a little hard for me to think beyond.”

Since July 2012, she has also been tasked with leading faculty through the process of addressing the school’s accredi-tation crisis and contributing to the “show cause” report, which the college must submit by March 15.

The Board of Trustees approved the final draft of the report on Feb. 28.

“As a librarian I love sharing informa-tion,” Saginor said.

Saginor is optimistic about the future, but likens the college to a student that works very hard to pass a test and is still aware that they probably won’t get an A despite their best efforts.

“What really makes working at City College rewarding is our students,” Sagi-nor said.

Saginor’s term as president ends this semester. Elections will be held in May.

Karen Saginor. Photo courtesy of City College.

The Save CCSF Coalition creates a “human billboard” on Feb. 28, 2013 in front of the Wellness Center at Ocean campus. Photo by Francesca Alati/The Guardsman

Faculty Spotlight

Protest

By Jandean Deocampo THE GUARDSMAN / JDEOCAMPO@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @BANANAISAFRUIT

By Lavinia Pisani THE GUARDSMAN / LPISANI@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @SFBREAKINGNEWS

Human billboard lines Ocean Avenue

Academic Senate president wins award

news 4 | the guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013

The Guardsman: How many faculty or staff members do you repre-sent?

Alisa Messer: We are down to about 1500 people, which is much less than the 2000 people we had five years ago. It’s significant.

TG: Why are we down so many faculty?

AM: Well, the budget cuts for one and the slow downsizing of the college. We had 100,000 students in ‘08-‘09. We are down to about 85,000, possibly as few as 80,000 students.

TG: What were, in your opinion, the primary issues that led to the current crisis that City College is now facing?

AM: There’s been so much interest in figuring out who is to blame and what’s at stake. I think the thing we always look to first is that the funding crisis has been huge in the community college

system and in public education overall.

In the last several years our community colleges have lost half a million students in California. At City College, there are a lot of factors that go into the current situation.

While we tried to save students, we tried to keep cuts away from the classroom and we tried to save jobs. That caused some tremendous strain while we kept a lot of funding in the class-room, but didn’t fund other things at the college, which long term or even medium term, that created some huge challenges.

TG: What are some of those things that were not funded?

AM: Significant amounts of maintenance. You see a lot of concern around technology which is also something that ulti-mately we need to fund.

TG: Are you optimis-tic about funding in the future?

AM: I’m optimistic about a couple things. For many years

we had a revenue problem, not a spending problem. It was our goal to change that. Some of that goal happened through Prop A. We got $16 million a year for eight years from SF voters.

The California Federation of Teachers was among the most involved early on in really pushing the state to say, you know what, we can bring more revenue back to our schools and back to the state. We can do it through what became Prop 30. We brought millions of dollars back to California.

TG: Are part-timers going to lose benefits?

AM: We want to ensure that part-timers don’t lose benefits. We have continued to say that is not an option for us.

For 30 years our part-timers have had access to benefits, and just saying, ‘oh no, never mind, we don’t need to insure you anymore,’ or ‘we only want to insure half of you,’ as has been suggested, really isn’t an option for us.

It is not a reasonable thing to do for our most vulnerable facul-ty and some of our most vulner-able employees, and it’s not to the benefit to the quality education or even to what San Francisco is about. I don’t think that’s what San Franciscans said when they voted for Prop A at 72.9 percent.

TG: Are we at risk of losing certain diversity departments as a result of reorganization?

AM: It remains to be seen exactly what will happen with the reorganization of the depart-ments.

We are really concerned that it hasn’t been transparent. That is something we have seen happen at other colleges, particularly with ethnic studies. Those classes get shunted to the side as not the core academic things. We want to ensure they remain intact.

TG: In recent months, the college has faced what some would call “negative news coverage” that isn’t providing both sides of the story. Do you agree?

AM: In my classroom when we talk about both sides of the story, we often like to open it up and consider there are not just two sides. Things are nuanced and complex. I do think that much of the coverage has not been balanced. I agree with that over-all. I also think that a lot of the complexities get lost as agendas are pushed and various ideas are moved forward.

TG: Have you contacted the media and voiced the opinion that the other side of the story may not be getting told in the report-ing you see?

AM: I have personally writ-ten letters and emails. I have sent

corrections. Sometimes those corrections are noted, but usually the damage is so far done by that time.

I have personally seen dozens, if not hundreds of emails from faculty, students and staff and from the public that people cc’d me on to say, ‘Look, I tried to make this point. I tried to send this in.’ So much has gone not just to the Chronicle, but other media outlets as well, but we haven’t seen much of that bubble up.

TG: Do you think the administration has done a good job of putting a human element to the problems and challenges the college is facing?

AM: Well, certainly not. For instance, we haven’t heard from the administration around the bargaining table or outside the bargaining table why it is that the administration apparently thinks that the college shouldn’t have access to benefits for part-timers, or should greatly restrict that.

It’s really about the bottom line. It’s about bean counting, and you lose the human element when you are talking about the bottom line. Doesn’t mean City College doesn’t have some pretty intense fiscal challenges to face right now or over the next several years, even though things are getting better. It’s hard to have a human element when what you are talking about is simply about what the costs are.

TG: Do you think the administration has gone far enough to seek out the opinions of faculty, staff and students and incor-porate them into decision making now?

AM: One of our big criticisms has been disappointment around just what you are asking about. There’s a lot of pressure around the timeline, and there are opin-ions the administration has about how we need to proceed.

Frequently we’ve felt left out. We’ve felt left out even in the collec-tive bargaining process where we have really been circumvented. I sit down once a week with folks from our union to do bargaining

with the college and we feel left out even with that going on and even though we are sitting on the work groups and I’m on the steering committee, but we don’t always feel like we are listened to or engaged.

We hear from students all the time that they’ve been asking to have a meeting with the chancel-lor, they’ve asked for a town hall. They want questions answered. They want to understand what’s happening. Everyone wants to understand what’s happening.

TG: Is Interim Chancellor Scott-Skillman creating an atmosphere of transpar-ency?

AM: It’s not my impression that we have an open door poli-cy. Or that anyone is pretending that we do. At this point I think it would be a good thing to have.

I know for myself and those of us that are leading the faculty union effort, there is so much happening all the time. It has been very hard to get information out. I can self-reflect a little bit on how challenging it is because of how much we are doing all the time at every moment to address so many things. I can imagine that is the same for the interim chancellor as well.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of staff and a lot of folks who could be and should be trying to find ways to engage the constitu-encies more deeply.

TG: When Prop. A, the parcel tax, was brought to the voters, it was labeled, “Saving City College.” I know you were instrumen-tal in getting out the vote and getting the message across. And, correct me if I am wrong, it is set to bring in [$]14 million?

AM: Actually, the city says [$]16 million. The college is saying [$]14 million.

TG: The administra-tion has made it clear that those funds are not going to be earmarked for salaries and programs. Instead, those funds are going to be used for pensions for retirees and to pump up financial reserves, primarily.

AM: Not actually pensions, but to fund retiree health benefits.

TG: Were voters misled?AM: I think we have a lot of

work to do with the community of San Francisco to ensure that voters were not misled. But right now I think they are being misled. I certainly feel that we were misled and the college was misled.

If you looked at the Prop. A ballot language, it was very clear about what the funds would be used for. The funds would be used for programs and maintaining

P reface: On Feb. 19, The Guardsman spoke to Alisa Messer, president of

the American Federation of Teachers, Local 2121. She represents the instruc-tors, counselors and librarians of City College.

By Gina Scialabba THE GUARDSMAN / GSCIALABBA@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @SFBREAKINGNEWS

faculty union president Alisa Messer on accreditation, salaries and cuts

Exclusive Q&A:

AFT 2121 President Alisa Messer. Photo by Santiago Mejia/The Guards-man

“The administration

apparently thinks that the college shouldn’t have

access to benefits for part-timers,

or should greatly restrict that.”

the guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013 | 5

news

TOTAL UNRESTRICTED BUDGET, FACULTY SALARIES& STUDENT ENROLLMENT 2008–2013

CITY COLLEGE

year 2008–09 2009–10 2010 –11 2011–12 2012–13✸

TOTAL BUDGET

GENERAL UNRESTRICTEDFUNDS (actual)

GENERAL UNRESTRICTED FUNDS (estimated)

TOTAL AMOUNT OFFACULTY SALARIES

TOTAL FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT STUDENTS ENROLLED(FTES: defined as the equivalent of 525 hours of student instruction for both credit and noncredit classes)

dolla

rs m

illio

ns

$ 450

$ 400

$ 350

$ 300

$ 250

$ 200

$ 150

$ 100

$ 50

✸forecasted budget

Estimated revenue from Prop. A

FOR ADULT EDUCATION/APPRENTICESHIP SHIFT FROM K–12 TO CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES

ONLINE EDUCATION IMPROVEMENTS

ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROPOSITION 39

IN MONEY OWED TO SYSTEM BYPREVIOUS DEFERRALS

APPORTIONMENT INCREASE

Gov. Brown’s 2013–2014 StateBudget Proposal

source: CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES CHANCELLOR’S OFFICEhttp://www.cccco.edu/ $14–16 million

$315.7 million

$758.4 million

$197.7 million

$179 million

$49.5 million

$16.5 milliontotal:

$88.45million

$87.25million

$85.71million

$84.81million

$

INFOGRAPHIC by David Hackett

$3.64 savingssince 2008

classes, to prevent layoffs, and the big one was to offset state budget cuts, which have been tremendous over the last year. It was to start to fill the funding again that hadn’t been cut so that we didn’t have to downsize the college further.

We’ve been saying we need to start to build up our reserves again. That’s the responsible thing to do, but we don’t need to overbuild it at the point when we’re also turning around and making cuts. We need to build up slowly and steadily, but clearly to a prudent reserve. That’s something everybody agrees we should do.

TG: Is the administration prioritizing the reserves over keeping faculty jobs or not cutting a class or any of the other things that the voters thought the money was going to?

AM: They are. They’re saying, ‘well, it’s nice that San Francisco voted on these things, and it’s nice that San Francisco said we want to support maintaining the college.’ But then they’re turning around and saying, ‘but we think this money really needs to be put over aside over here and it needs to be used for other things than what the public said it was going to maintain.’

It’s a little bit preposterous if you think about it. Everybody agrees that we need to keep our accreditation and we need to

address the recommendations. How we do that should be a college conversation, not just a top-down imposition in terms of what it ends up looking like.

TG: Bryce Harris, the California Commu-nity College’s chancellor, delivered a rather stern message to college trust-ees on Jan. 21.

AM: Yeah, that’s true.

TG: He essentially warned that City College is not “too big to fail.” Is that true? And do you feel that message is warranted at this time?

AM: You mean to make that statement and deliver that message?

TG: Right...Well, first. Is it true? Is it true this college isn’t too big to fail? And, the second piece, is that a message that would be warranted?

AM: The first part, I would just reframe it. When we say “too big to fail,” it assumes we are talk-ing about banks, right? I think every public education institution shouldn’t be too big to fail. It’s not because it’s too big, but because it’s too important to lose, and I think that City College is too important to lose. It’s too important to San Francisco to lose. So, there’s a lot at stake.

There are some people who think it doesn’t matter what kind of college we have, maybe. As long as we have a college. So, our goal has been to ensure that through this process we get through it as clearly and with as much integrity as we can, and with the school in tact.

TG: Some people have criticized both the interim chancellor and the special trustee Robert Agrella as, and these are not my words, “carpetbaggers” who are “using the crisis to bust unions.”

AM: We are certainly concerned about having new interim folks come in. Or folks with power from the outside, who haven’t gotten to know the college and don’t necessarily have the depth of experience with SF,

and our students’ needs in SF and our community’s needs in SF. So, I would frame it a little bit differ-ently, but we definitely have that concern.

TG: Anything else you would like to add that I haven’t already covered?

AM: I haven’t forgotten that it really wasn’t that long ago that community colleges were free and were accessible to everyone and offered so much, and particularly to our most vulnerable students. Community colleges used to really be, and I believe still are and still can be, about community and that includes the pipeline to transfer to four year institutions, which is what I do every day in the classroom.

I’m an English teacher, and I teach basic skills. I help students navigate their way to State or Davis or Stanford or UC Berkeley, and I’m always really excited to do that. We also teach immigrants English and it’s incredible that we do that in a city like this. That’s not something that other cities have to the same extent that we do.

We are the place folks come when they haven’t finished their high school degree or sometimes even their junior high school degree. They come here and get a degree in our transitional studies program.

I think that ultimately the state used to value that and still

could if we were able to do more to shift the conversation about who deserves education. What education is for. The fact that it’s a human right and people should have access to it and extended access to it if they need it. That is something that is really about the health and wealth of our commu-nities and that is what we think education is about.

I grew up in San Francisco and the reason that I came to work at City College of SF. I said, ‘I want to come and work in the city that I grew up in, with the students that City College of San Francisco serves who would otherwise have no other opportunity often for any other education.’

We tried really hard not to lay people off over the last several years in really challenging times. It seems strange to me that those things, even health benefits for part-timers, all those San Fran-cisco values, it’s almost like they have been criminalized under this current situation.

There’s such a shift in how we talk about what City College of San Francisco does, and what it does well. And the idea that we have somehow criminalized the San Francisco values or criminalized our dedication to offering acces-sible education has really been a shock to a lot of folks within the college. It is something I still have hope we can turn around.

It’s not about CCSF being ‘too big to

fail’. It’s too important to

lose.

6 | the guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013

culture

VIDEO: SAN FRANCISCO GOES NUTS AFTER GIANTS SWEEP THE WORLD SERIES FROM TIGERS ON OCT. 28: YOUTUBE.COM/BLOOMREPORTS

Oh, Science Hall.City College’s first classroom

building sits atop Ocean campus’ highest plateau, an archetypal image of human aspiration, a great and worthy fortress of academic study.

Science Hall was the shared vision of City College founder Archibald Cloud, chief deputy superintendent of the San Fran-cisco Unified School District, and renowned San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger.

Both men were determined when ground was first broken in 1937 to build a “showplace for monumental architecture.”

Cloud and Pflueger succeed-ed.

Science Hall is reached from Phelan Avenue after climbing 87 stairs and crossing 11 landings. The four-story, 489-foot-long structure (one story is an under-ground basement), 90-feet high, commands the attention of those drawn to it.

Look west on a clear day from Science Hall’s western side and you can see the same Pacific Ocean Cloud and Pflueger first surveyed.

Science Hall’s heavy but smooth-yielding entrance doors belie their 73 years. (Science Hall opened in 1940.) The eyes catch

the doors’ black, white and orange chemical hues as much as the faded original color.

Once inside the visitor sees not just more stairs, but twin murals painted in Works Progress Administration (WPA)-style.

The name of the mural is “Theory and Science,” and was painted by Frederick Olmsted.

“Theory and Science” depicts young men and women engaged in various scientific pursuits.

There are rooms and more rooms within Science Hall as well, of course.

The Biotech Office on the second floor is not just the Northern California Biotech-nology Center, but the Regional Center for Bio-Link, the National Biotechnology Center.

The MESA/STEM Center is

City College’s contact point for National Science Foundation science, technology, engineering and math scholarships.

The aged-brass dome at the top of Science Hall houses the astronomy department’s plan-etarium.

Exit Science Hall’s east side and the four large wings extend-ing from the western side of the building adds to the impressive bulk of the building. One of the

wings extends to a large bust of Leonardo da Vinci. The other wing extends to Thomas Edison.

The busts are gifts from Pflueger.

Da Vinci, Edison, Pflueger and City College champion Cox still grace the student body with their presence.

There is something rotten in the state of Fairyland. It’s this film.

Hollywood is at it again, attempting to take a classic child-hood tale and make millions.

The formula is simple. Start with a large budget.

Here, reportedly $190 million. Next, we need a hero. Add

Jack. (Nicholas Hoult from “X-Men” and “Warm Bodies.”)

Let’s add a “damsel in distress.” Preferably a princess. Preferably betrothed. Preferably to a greedy, sinister man.

Add a few badly-created, grumpy, CGI-monsters.

Here, we can use giants. But it could have been orcs or trolls, vampires or even Republicans.

Now provide a magical backdrop. How about…Oh, a beanstalk this time. Or Middle-earth. Capitol Hill. Whatever. Who will notice?

Make sure there is a moment

of reflection. Or a badly-scripted love scene.

Here, let’s have love blossom on said beanstalk. In the middle of climbing downward. Thou-sands of feet in the air. Whilst running for your life.

Nothing is more of an aphro-disiac than being chased by angry orcs. Oops, giants.

Voila! A bad, bad movie. Not even the stellar cast,

including the usually brilliant Ewan McGregor as Elmont, leader of the king’s elite guard, can salvage it.

The movie attempts to be a mash-up hybrid of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Jack the Giant Slayer.”

Don’t know the difference between the two? Does it really matter?

The plot loosely follows both legends.

It then tries to imitate Tolk-ien, “The Princess Bride,” “Shrek” or any other epic journey saga.

Jack is a poor farm boy sent to the market to sell a horse. He comes home with beans.

Along the way he stumbles upon the princess, defends her honor and falls in love.

Somehow, a beanstalk sprouts up and angry giants are afoot. Why are they angry? Does it really matter?

The princess finds herself in harm’s way. Thanks to the beanstalk. Or the beans. Or Jack. Or furious giants.

The giants want to rule the world. (Well, of course they do silly!) Why? Because…they do.

This hero’s adventure just becomes more and more ridicu-lous as the movie progresses.

I actually questioned wheth-er this was a parody of “The Lord of the Rings” or “Shrek.”

I was left with several basic questions, such as why are people always hanging off of cliffs in movies? Yes, that happens here.

And, how did Ewan McGregor locate an exhaus-tive supply of hair gel in Middle Earth or Oz or wherever he was.

Why does Jack look and dress like a Valencia Street hipster who could just as easily be sipping

coffee at Four Barrel on a lazy Sunday?

And, why is this movie attempting to tie the lineage of the British royal family to any of these people?

Despite the missteps, the special effects were decent. The

scenery and sets are breathtak-ing.

Bottom line. Jack is not a fairy-tale ending for director Bryan Singer. Save your pennies. Buy a good bottle of mead (wine) and curl up with “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Length: 114 min

Genre: fantasy/

adventure

ReleaseD: March

Rating: PG-13

Director: Steven Soder-bergh

screen-writer: Scott C.

Burns

Stars:-Nicholas

Hoult

-Eleanor Tomlinson

-Ewan MacGregor

-Stanely Tucci

If you go...

Rami Zayed, 18, Undeclared

As long as it doesn’t bother me, as long as it doesn’t affect our educational system, or anything major, I think that it should be allowed. I don’t completely support it, but if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.

David Meyer, 22, Business

It should be overturned. Gay marriage in the end is just a legal recognition of homosexual rights. There is a large population that is being discriminated against. The gay marriage issue is impor-tant, not just for that group, but for everyone. To be legally recognized at a state, or even federal, level would change our identity as Americans and the way we look at ourselves..

Brent Patterson, 47, American Studies

What took so long? I think that that’s good for our country, it’s good for our state, it’s good for everyone. We’re not discriminating against people, we’re including everyone, we’re becom-ing better.

The Chutney Express will return in Issue 5

Architectural details shine at Science Hall

Sights and Sounds:

By Gina Scialabba THE GUARDSMAN / GSCIALABBA@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @SFBREAKINGNEWS

By Alex Reyes THE GUARDSMAN / AREYES@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @SFBREAKINGNEWS

Movie Review: “Jack the Giant Slayer”

Beanstock falls flat

A scene from Jack The Giant Slayer. Movie still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/MCT

A detail on the side of Science Hall at Ocean campus. Photo by Clarivel Fong/The Guardsman

Should the Supreme Court reverse Prop. 8?

Have Your Say:

the guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013 | 7

opInIon

No such thing as “impartial”

The article by Nanette Asimov: I do not care whether or not theChronicle has an agen-da for or against CCSF.

I have not read most of the articles. But if Nanette thinks for one second that there is any human being in the world that can be as “impartial” as she thinks she is being, I would love to meet them. No one is an impartial observer, it is not possible to be so.

To claim that she has “never expressed an opinion” is utter nonsense. Everyone expresses opinion. That is all there is.

All information is process in the brain of the observer and is subject to the filters they apply based upon the experiences they have had throughout their life. The subsequent expression is de facto biased by those same filters.

Nanette, you are not a robot, you are human and you express opinion every time your put words to page.

Todd M. Rigg CarrieroCCSF Astronomy Instructor

Chronical makes errors

Regarding the coverage of CCSF by the SF Chronicle, I wish to point out some factual errors they have made.

In the blockbuster article titled “City College near bank-ruptcy ...” the lead sentence says “City College of SanFrancisco is

perilously close to bankruptcy, in part because it employs nearly twice as many faculty as similar-colleges and pays them better ...”.

This is not true. While CCSF has resisted the trend toward part-time teachers and there are more full time teachers than at comparable colleges, it is not true there are more over-all faculty. The second part of the sentence is also inaccurate. While part-time faculty may be paid significantly better than at comparable colleges, that is not true for full-time faculty.

In the same article there is the claim “Faculty salaries rose by 25 percent over seven years...” This is false. The source of the error is in the report of the Financial Crisis Management Assistance Team. The chart on page 26 shows that they were referring to costs not salary.

On page 14 of the same report it correctly says “there have been no across-the-board salary increases for any employ-ee group since July 2007”. Else-where it is verified that CCSF faculty agreed to salary reduc-tions in 2011.

Instead of receiving huge salary increases, as incorrectly written in the SF Chronicle, faculty have endured paycuts.

The sensational and inac-curate statements have been damaging. I hope SF Chronicle issues correction?

Rick SterlingRetired engineer from Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berke-ley

Letters to the editorLetters to the editor must be under 250 words and may be edited for content. Send letters to: editor@theguardsman.com

As Washington deals with $85 billion in sequester related cuts, a game of political chicken is playing out here in San Fran-cisco, which could have serious implications for California’s entire community college system.

Lacking strong lobbyists in Sacramento, California’s public education system has endured incessant budget cuts since voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978, and the state now ranks 49th nationally in K-12 per-pupil spending, according to an Ed Source study released in January.

Since 2008, the state’s commu-nity colleges have lost 12 percent—or $809 million—of their total funding, according to the state chancellor’s office.

City College lost $17 million in 2011-2012 and in order to stave off further cuts the administra-tion dipped into its reserves and drained them down to less than $3 million. It should be closer to $10 million, or five percent of its budget, according to guidelines set by the state chancellor’s office.

Compounding the problem, the school loses desperately need-ed state funding when enrollment drops, which it has.

The state reimburses the college based on the number of full-time equivalent students—not the actual student headcount. That number peaked in 2008 at 37,190 (or approximately 110,000 actual students) and dropped last year to around 32,000.

There are certainly admin-istrative and financial problems at City College. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges made that clear in its July 2012 report that slammed the school with a near death sentence.

Part of what made the commission’s decision so shock-ing, though, was the absence of any warning. The school was in good standing with the commis-sion in 2006, the last year it was subject to re-evaluation.

Despite the general percep-tion that City College is on the brink of closure, it most definitely is not. San Francisco should be more concerned about layoffs and

cuts to programs that are difficult to reverse once they are imple-mented.

The Board of Trustees approved the final “show cause” report on Feb. 28, which the commission will use to deter-mine if the college has “correct-ed the deficiencies noted by the Commission and is in compliance with the Eligibility Requirements, Accreditation Standards, and Commission Policies,” as stated in the commission’s July letter to the college.

Little faithIn January, Robert Agrella, the

school’s state-appointed special trustee, told state officials that City College won’t make the dead-line and might need to ask for an extension.

“We’re making significant progress. I don’t want to minimize that,” Agrella said, as reported by the SF Chronicle, and added that, as far as meeting the March 15 deadline goes, “That’s going to be an impossibility in my opinion.”

Such a statement belies the power of the commission.

Although returning the school to a “good standing” status would be ideal, the administration should be striving for “probation” at the very least—a sanction one step up from “show cause”—instead of propagating an extreme notion of “do or die”.

It’s a scare tactic and the college community has a right to be upset about it.

Three other schools were recently removed from their sanc-tions, two of which were on “show cause,” just like City College. As of Feb. 11, Cuesta College is now on “warning” and College of the Redwoods is on “probation.”

There has been a lot of negative media attention about the college over the past eight months, but ultimately the college’s precarious situation is symptomatic of a lack of funding for public education.

Funding brings hopeAlthough not as strong as the

defunct Millionaire’s Tax would have been had it made to the ballot in November, funds garnered

from [Gov. Jerry] Brown’s Propo-sition 30 are expected to bring in nearly $200 million in additional funding to the state’s community colleges next year.

City College will also get about $16 million annually for eight years from the local parcel tax passed in November. How it plans to use those funds is already proving controversial, but at least the funds will be there.

College officials plan to use the parcel tax funds for beefing up the reserves and satisfying pension obligations. Many faculty, staff and students are upset because the language of Proposition A called for saving classes and preventing layoffs.

The administration’s response? Funds from the parcel tax will be used in any way they deem neces-sary to satisfy the accrediting commission, because that’s the only way to “save CCSF.”

The financial and administra-tive problems at City College do not warrant shutting the school down.

Upwards of 85,000 students would be displaced, and the local economy would lose an institu-tion that trains a large portion of the workforce, including police officers, paramedics and small business owners.

The school has made a lot of progress over the past eight months, and the accrediting commission should be pleased, even though a significant portion of the college community is clear-ly not happy with many of the changes being implemented.

It should be noted that new legislation was introduced in the state assembly last month that would provide emergency funds to community colleges experienc-ing low enrollment while under probation or show cause sanc-tions.

Known as Assembly Bill 1199, it is sponsored by Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino and is a desperately needed safety net for California’s community colleges.

A version of this article was origi-nally published in The Ingleside Light.

MARCH 6Resource center tour — Diamond Dave Whitaker from the Associ-ated Students Council will be leading a resource center walk-about. Ram Plaza, Ocean campus, 12:30 p.m. For more information contact 415-239-3108.

MARCH 8 Presentation — Alzheimer’s Disease in 2013: Progress and Challenges. A forum that discuss-es the leading causes of demen-tia. Science Building Room 300,

Ocean campus, 12 p.m.-1 p.m.

MARCH 11Documentary Film — Public

screening of the award-winning documentary, “We are Wiscon-sin.” The documentary explores the grassroots movements that arose to combat Wisconsin Gov. Scott Brown’s austerity agenda

City College’s struggles will also be discussed. San Francisco State University Library, 1630 Holloway Ave., 6 p.m.-9 p.m. For more information contact Diana Scott at dmscott01@yahoo.com.

Aztec New Year — Celebrate the Aztec (Mexika) New Year which begins at midnight. There will be special guests Mamakoatl and Jose Najera, Aztec dancing, a community dinner, an open mic and a special remembrance for Ernesto “Xe” Gonzalez Acos-ta. 1125 Valencia St., Mission campus. 6:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

MARCH 13 & 14Tattoo Contest—Sweet Ink City College tattoo competition with

prizes worth $100-$25 for the top three tattoos. Chasing Lions Cafe, Multi-use Building, Ocean campus.

MARCH 14Save CCSF Rally — A rally at City Hall to call on the city’s elected officials to take immediate action to save City College from losing its accreditation. Outside City Hall, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. For more information visit www.saveccsf.org

Jazz Lecture — The Lenny Carl-

son Trio will present a live jazz demonstration and lecture for students. Sponsored by the ccsf Music Department. Free. Creative Arts Room 133, Ocean campus, 12:30-2 p.m.

MARCH 15 Science Talk — “HIV in China: One Country Five Epidemics” is a presentation discussing the multiple factors contributing to the spread of HIV in China. Science Building Room 300, Ocean campus, 12 p.m.-1 p.m.

EVENTS CALENDAR

Find a mistake? Let us know! Email: editor@theguardsman.com

Corrections:

In Volume 155 Issue 3 we incorrectly printed that the Russian meteor was 10 feet in diameter and traveling at 10 to 12 miles per hour. It should have been 50 feet in diameter and traveling at 10 to 12 miles per second.

CCSF’s crisis is a lesson in public education funding

Editor’s note:

sportsthe guardsMan & theguardsMan.coM | March 6- March 19, 2013 | 8

sports calendar

Womens basketball survivesCurrently the No. 8 seed the team

advanced to the next round of the Northern California Regional playoffs, defeating No. 9 seed Mission College 77-67.

After being down six at halftime, the Rams rallied and took a six-point lead with approx-imately four minutes left in the game. The Rams maintained their lead late in the game to advance.

City College earns a chance to face No. 1 seed Santa Rosa Junior College who come fresh off of a razor-sharp 69-66 victory against San Jose City College.

The game will take place March 6 in Santa Rosa at 7 p.m. (Ivan Huang)

Baseball blows lead twiceCity College fell against Skyline College

5-2, in a very close match up, that saw City College (0-2, 3-11 Coast/Golden Gate) blow a two-run lead in the fifth inning on March 1.

Skyline freshman Ismael Orozco and sophomore Anthony Santiago etched RBI singles in the fifth inning to tie the ballgame.

City College would answer back with an RBI double from sophomore Chris-tian Murphy, that drove in freshman Albert Taleroc to take a 3-2 lead.

Skyline (0-2, 3-11 Coast/Pacific) would

tie the ballgame again in the eighth inning with a flyout by sophomore Cory Faubel that allowed Santiago to score.

With the game tied at the top of the ninth, Skyline scored twice on RBI doubles by Oroz-co and freshman Lance Montano and took a 5-3 lead.

City College was unable to produce any runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Skyline retired three Rams’ batters in a row to close out the game. (Ivan Huang)

Softball gaining Norcal respectCity College Sophomore Cristina Menji-

var hit two home runs, propelling her to the top of multiple state offensive category rank-ings, and catcher Kaitlin Blando added a home run to lead City College to a 10-6 triumph over Mission College on Feb. 21.

This was the Rams’ first win in the Coast Conference North in two seasons.

“You have to get used to winning and expect to win. We’re getting there,” Head Coach Jack McGuire said.

The Rams also split a doubleheader on Feb. 23 in Ukiah against Mendocino, bounc-ing back to dominate the second game 15-8 after falling in a close opener 13-10. Ram freshman pitcher Alexis Cortez continued to twirl solid pitching for City College.

City College stumbled at De Anza College losing 5-1 on Feb. 28, despite giving up only one earned run.

Menjivar doubled in the contest to lead the offense again, but three Rams’ fielding errors made the difference in the game. (Dan Harrington)

Tennis to host next three gamesThe City College women’s tennis team has

a current overall record of 2-3. None of the close singles matches went the

Rams way when they hosted De Anza College at the Ocean campus courts on March 1. In fact, De Anza left the Ingleside with a 9-0 win.

The shutout could not dampen the team’s enthusiasm for the young season.

The team plays at Monterey Peninsula March 7, then hosts three matches in a row, starting with a visit by Chabot College on March 12 at 2 p.m.

It brings a chance for Foothill Coach Lauren Hickey to visit her twin sister Kelly for Coast Conference North play. The twin sisters were co-head coaches in 2009 for the Rams.

“[Foothill] got the better of us in the early round [an 8-1 Foothill win in a Feb. 21 rain-out makeup] and we are looking to get back on top in the second half,” coach Kelly Hickey said.

City College versus Cabrillo on March 22 reconvenes two teams who gutted out nine close matches resulting in a 5-4 Ram win on Feb 26. Round two is expected to be another nail-biter. (Dan Harrington)

In the first playoff game of the season, the Rams (12-0, 29-0 Coast-North) continued their season’s historic win streak, running away with a 92-52 victory against San Jose (8-4, 20-9 Coast-South) in a first round playoff elimination game.

City College’s sophomore guard Delon Wright, who led the Rams in scoring with 19 points, intercepted a pass on the Jaguars’ first possession of the game, and that summed up the story of the game.

The Rams would never look back.

With the game getting out of hand early, Jaguars head coach Percy Carr called three of his six timeouts within the first five minutes of the game.

Carr, who’s in his 37th year with the Jaguars came into the game with 808 career wins under his belt, which makes him the winningest coach in California Community College history.

“City College is the best team in the state,” Carr said. “They’re big and strong at every position, if they continue to play like this, I’m 99 percent sure they will win the whole thing.”

City College head coach Justin Labagh may have 27 years less coaching experience than Carr but he knows if you’re going into the playoffs at 28-0, you must be doing something right.

“We prepared the same way as we have all year, it’s like, why

change anything now?” Labagh said.

The Rams made great plays all night, but what may have been the play of the game came with 6:40 left in the first half when Wright lobbed up an alley-oop for sophomore guard Shawn Smith who finished it with authority.

After a 44-25 half-time lead, City College was in complete control the entire second half.

The Rams got it going from down-town in the second half with a barrage of threes from Wright and freshman guards, Quincy Smith and Bryan Mcgriff.

Wright and McGriff both sustained injuries early in the game. Wright injured his hand and McGriff his ankle, although both injuries appeared mild.

For the second consecutive year, Wright was awarded North-Coast Conference Player of the Year for his outstanding overall play.

Smith, freshman guard and sixth man Dulani Robinson and sophomore center Gabriel Aguirre joined Wright as first-team all-conference players.

“Well they deserve it, it’s not over one or two games, that’s a 12-game conference. I don’t get to vote for them, they were voted on by other coaches, so I think it’s

great,” Labagh said.“It feels good to be recognized

as one of the top players in the league … but we expect to win,” Smith said.

A humble Wright agreed with Smith.

“We’re comfortable with where we’re at, and hopefully we just win,” Wright said.

At every level of basketball, play slows down in the playoffs.

Winning in the dominant fashion that City College has, one can’t help but wonder what will happen if a Rams opponent

manages to keep the score tight.“We’ve been practicing close

games. We’ll do things like play-ing down with three minutes left to combat ourselves for when we do get into a close game,” Labagh said.

The Rams are three games away from potentially raising their second championship banner in three years.

The No. 1 seed Rams will host No. 9 seed Lassen College in the second round of the playoffs on March 6 at 7 p.m.

BADMINTONSat., March 16 @ Fresno City College at 12 p.m.

(PreseasonTourney)

Fri., March 22 @ De Anza College

at 6 p.m.

BASEBALL Thur., March 7

@ Gavilan at 2 p.m.

Fri., March 8 @ Mission College at 2 p.m.

Tues. March 12 vs Hartnell College @ Fairmont Field

(Pacifica) at 1 p.m.

Thurs., March 14 vs Chabot College @

Fairmont Field (Pacifica) at 1 p.m.

Sat., March 16 @ West Valley College

at 12 p.m.

BASKETBALLMen’s:

Wed., March 6 vs Lassen College @ CCSF at 7 p.m.

Women’s:Wed., March 6 @ Santa

Rosa at 7 p.m.

SOFTBALL Thurs., March 7

vs Foothill @ Fairmont Field at 1 p.m.

Sat., March 9 vs College of San Mateo @

Fairmont Field (Pacifica) at 12 p.m.

Tues., March 12 vs Cabrillo College @

Fairmont Field (Pacifica) at 1 p.m.

Wed., March 14 vs San Jose

City College @ Fairmont Field

(Pacifica) at 1 p.m.

SWIMMING Fri./Sat., March 8-9 @

Cuesta College all day

Fri., March 15 vs Las Positas/Solano

at 2 p.m.

Fri., March 22 @ De Anza at 12 p.m.

TENNISFri., March 8 @

Monterey Peninsula College at 2 p.m.

Tues., March 12 vs Chabot at 2 p.m.

Fri., March 15 vs Foothill College

at 2 p.m.

Sports Briefs

By Zack Tobita THE GUARDSMAN / ZTOBITA@THEGUARDSMAN.COM / @ZACKAAA

Gain early lead against San Jose City Jaguars

Rams advanceMen’s Basketball Playoffs

Rams (24) Shawn Smith makes a layup against San Jose City College on March 2, 2013. Photo illustration by Santiago Mejia/The Guardsman