Eco-Peace in the Middle East--from CCSF Campus to Glide Memorial

Deborah Levy let us teachers--current and retired--know about a special event on the CCSF campus.
Eco-Peace in the Middle East. 

She wrote, "The three co-directors (from Jordan, Israel, and Palestine) of a terrific  organization called Eco-peace will be speaking, and  leading at least some conversation.  Talking about water availability and access to clean water - very concrete topics - can offer an opportunity for 

positive discussion and relationship-building, across (but not ignoring) political differences."

I couldn't make the presentation on campus from 11:00 to 12:30 because I had to be at a CARA meeting at 1:00 in another part of town.

But there was a second presentation at Glide Memorial in the evening, so I attended that.

The announcement read "Water rights, Environmental Protection and Peace in the Middle East A presentation by three co-directors of Ecopeace Middle East

Yana Abu Taleb
Gidon Bromberg
Nada Majdalanby

but Nada Majdalanby was denied a visa.

 http://www.ecopeaceme.org/

Sponsored by CCSF Concert & Lecture Series * Dept of Interdisciplinary Studies * CCSF Sustainability Committee * Critical Middle East / SWANA Studies Persons requiring disability-related accommodations for this event should contact Disabled Student Programs and Services at (415) 452-5481.

More later!

Sunday Streets with CCSF and Connecting with CCSF Molloy Star, Gabrielle Chun

I met an incredible couple at Sunday Streets off the Great Highway in June 2015, when I was working on the Enrollment Campaign for CCSF.  The couple, Ron and Christina Chun,  had met at City College in 1982 in  psychology 101 course, which I consider a success story, and they told me about their daughter's good experiences at CCSF, which I wrote up.

When I asked for an update recently (as I'd also done in 2016), Ron Chun told me all about their son Christian's many activities and successes and told me that their daughter Gabrielle was home for a year to take more City College courses, which she can transfer to her theater school, Molloy, in NYC.  He also sent me this link of Gabrielle Chun singing "Let Me Be Your Star" at the Asian-America Pageant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sub7Q3M1EhQ

I commented, "Very impressive!  A gorgeous young woman singing with incredible strength and self-confidence.  I think we should let her be OUR star!"

The Tenderloin Times and CCSF Connections

Last night I went to a gathering at the Tenderloin Museum, where we "donors"  (sounds like an arm and a limb) were served drinks and hors d'oeuvres.  (Not sure there was any tender loin, but maybe...)  We had from 5:30 to 7:00 to look around the museum, where issues from The Tenderloin Times 1977-1994 were on display.

Then there was to be a panel of journalists on the topic "From Broadsheet to Broadband:  Community Media in the Digital Age."  They each spoke for five minutes about how technology is re-defining how we connect to media and the concept of community.

I got a good seat and eaves-dropped on the group I assumed would make up the panel.

I recognized Andrew Lam from the time I took my class to see him on the Ocean Campus.  But there was another man whose face I knew, but I didn't know from where.

Finally it dawned on me that he was Juan Gonzales, the chair of the CCSF Journalism Department as well as the founder of El Tecolote, a bilingual newspaper now 47-years old. 

The man on Juan's right in the photos here is Rob Waters, a former editor of The Tenderloin Times.  The man you see on the far right was the moderator, Brad Paul, housing advocate and former Cadillac Hotel tenant.

Here they are when Rob Waters was speaking and the others were seated for the panel.

Sara Colm, former editor; Andrew Lam, author; Carrie Sisto, Tenderloin Editor of Hoodline; Juan Gonzales, founder of El Tecolote and Chair of CCSF's Journalism Department.

David Talbot, co-founder of Salon, 48 Hills op-ed writer, former SF Examiner editor, former SF Chronicle columnist, and author, was a special speaker.

---

Jenny Hammer's Song for Nadia

Jenny Hammer's song for Nadia is beautiful written and beautifully sung.  (I've put the recorded version online on YouTube.  https://youtu.be/AAMRlVrsCug )

 I didn't know Nadia very well, but I think this song can resonate with people in terms of other people who affect our lives even after they've passed on.

Jenny Hammer's Song for Nadia 10/08/17

 There’s one fewer in our midst;

Her absence brings us grieving

Yet a solace knowing this:

All she’s left before her leaving--

Left us with her visions, light, and song.

Altered, thus, the rest of us go on;

So she stays, changing ways and is not gone.

Fly across the waters.

Arc across the sky, beyond the moon, beyond the sun.

Join the ancient others;

Your dance of life’s not done.

Your dance of life’s not done.

Child of muses, child of dreams!

Matter is not what is seems.

It’s the flutter, not the wings 

That’s the lasting of all things.

You flew and still you fly.

You flew and still you fly.

You flew and still you fly.

You flew and still you . . .

Fly across the waters.

Arc across the sky, and then continue past the sun.

Join the ancient others;

You flew and still you fly.

You danced, you sang, and I, now

Fly across the waters.

Arc across the sky, beyond the moon, beyond the sun,

Joining all the others

To celebrate this one.

We celebrate this one.

All celebrate this one and

Fly.

Fly across the waters.

Arc across the sky, beyond the moon, beyond the sun.

Join the ancient others.

Your difference is not done.

Your difference is not done.

Your difference is not done.

Oh, fly.
Fly.

Bernie at CCSF, Where Education Is a Human Right--Free (to Residents)

Bernie Sanders spoke at CCSF this past Friday, and he got the kind of turnout that shows why we need to build the PAEC, the Pacific Arts and Education Center!

These pictures all show why I need a better zoom lens too!

Anyway, it was a very upbeat gathering.  Everyone there seemed to think that education is a human right and that education wasn't an expense for the state but an investment.

CCSF Outreach in the Tenderloin at Sunday Streets with California Bluegrass!

CCSF outreach interacted with more than 100 potential students at Sunday Streets in the Tenderloin on August 20 as a very rousing California Bluegrass Band played beside us. 

 Below you see student ambassador Moises and Danny in the foreground working as the musicians play.

Yes, Danny was back, looking dapper, and he and Josie Loo, a wonderful just-retired counselor willing not to retire from CCSF outreach, were there all day.  The were helped by Carole Meagher, Leslie Milloy of Free City in the Chancelor's Office, Associate Dean of Outreach Alex Guiriba,  student ambassadors Zac Palacios, Moises Rivera,  Claudia Liu (?), and Lillian Ho, who at the end of the day picked up the furniture and material that I delivered in the morning. 

We had visits, too, from faculty like Sue Englander, here with Leslie Milloy.

Here Carole Meagher is proudly pointing to her former student, featured on our Free City flyer.

The file box Denise Selleck and I put together was used for the first time, and I think it's helpful!  

The list is also helpful because we can see at a glance what we have in the file box without opening it and going through each tab.  (Besides, the cookies I baked needed a resting place!)

Carole made the comment that it would be good to have major all-CCSF cards and flyers out and keep things like "Underwater Electronic Basket-Weaving" filed away!

No, we really don't offer Underwater Electronic Basket-weaving, but we do offer a wealth of other things, and what gets put out will be somewhat determined by where we are even though Sunday Streets is supposed to attract people from all over the city.

Here our student ambassadors Moises and Claudia are filing the flyers at the end of the day.

As usual, I met people I usually don't see on the streets, like a woman I know from the Y Stonestown!

And the music played on!

Retirees on Probation

Nancy Husari and Lynn Schneider hosted a relaxing and friend-filled retirement picnic in Alameda in a friend's house by the water. (Forgot to take a scenic picture of the water mass, but the people mass is even lovelier!)

Thomas Lee said the period between retirement in May and the fall semester was "probation," so the teachers have been released from detention and are now subject to a period of good behavior under supervision. (At least two Bobs were there to supervise.)

Of course, probation is also "the process or period of testing or observing the character or abilities of a person in a certain role," and that role would be that of retiree! I think we're all performing so well that our retirement is going to have a long run! Thank you, Lynn and Nancy!

Filing for CCSF-SF

Today Denise Selleck came over with the labels she created from my list, and we filed!

Listing What CCSF Has to Offer

Aeronautics, Directions to CCSF Department of 

Anthropology,  Mission

Architecture Major Transfer Program

ART Ocean Campus

Art Department Register for Classes (Anna Asebedo)

AA-T  Associate in Arts in Studio Arts for Transfer

Bridge to Bioscience Program

Broadcast Electronic Media Arts

Business Web Pages--Intermediate (Noncredit, Mission Center)

Business administration  Office Administration Specialist

Certiport Lab--Microsoft Office and QuickBooks Certificate, Mission Campus

Child Development Certificate and Major

Child Development and Family Studies Department

Child Development Permit Matrix--with Alternative Qualification Options Indicated

Child Development 96 (Now at Mission Camus--only 1 copy!

Child Development Lab Center, Mission Campus (in English and Spanish)

Cinema Department of CCSF

Citizenship Classes, Chinatown Campus

Community Health Worker Certificate Program

          Post-Prison Health Worker Certificate

Computer Science Department

          Basic Computer Concepts Certificate Mission Campus

Construction Classes at Evans (Other side is Blueprint reading)

Construction Introduction to Construction Management Mission Center

Construction Management Courses (mission, Ocean, Chinatown/NB

Custodial Training Evans Center

English for Janitors (only 1 copy but interesting to see)

ESL Classes for Adults (Noncredit, all campuses)

ESL   Mission Campus  (Second side has all campus listed)

Ethnic Studies,  Introduction to  Ocean Campus

Financial Aid

          The California Dream Act

Foreign Language Classes

          Day

          Evening and Saturday

          Japanese

Free City Walls Torn Down and Barriers Busted cards

Free City Frequently Asked Questions

Free City College!  Enroll Now

GED  Mission Center

GED John Adams

HARTS 4 ALL Homeless/At Risk Transitional Students Program

Health

          Community Health Worker Certificate  Ocean?

          Youth Worker Certificate (Hlth 65)  Southeast Center

Health Occupations John Adams

Humanities:  Comparative Religions

IDST

          Ways of Faith

          Beautiful booklet--perhaps one to be displayed on tables

Interior Design

Journalism

Latin American & Latino/a Studies (Colonial History of Latin America) Ocean Campus

Latin American & Latino Studies, Art 105  Ancient Art and Architecture of Latin America

Latinas in the U.S.  "Voces"    Ocean Campus

Math Rocks  (Algebra, Southeast Center)

Matriculation--All-in-One-Day  (last session given is July 29) 

Medical Office Certificate

Middle East Studies

Mission Center Programs/Services

Music Dept.  Class Schedule--for table display?

Older Adults

Physical Education Dance and Athletics

Placement Tests

Puente

Spanish for Bilinguals (Español para bilingües)

Theatre Arts (2 different pamphlets, small supply)

Trauma Prevention and Recovery Certificate

Veteran (Student Veteran)  Health Program

Visual Media Design program brochure Ocean and Mission

Women Studies

          Womn 25 Introduction to Women's Studies:  Feminism Demystified

          The Politics of Sexual Violence

Working Adult Degree Program

Today's outreach at Sunday Streets on Valencia (between 15th and 16th Streets), was awesome, but we really need an awning!

(Here awesome counselor Donna Hayes, sans awning, gives information to a passerby.)

This is not the first time we've asked for an awning, and we've heard arguments against having one, but today we were all melting in the sun--and even the apples used for weights melted.  Almost every group had an awning except ours, which made it hard to find our group when I left to get a coconut down the street.  I walked right past our spot and only realized I'd passed it when I saw the Golden Warriors awning. I've also been told that people couldn't find us when they were really looking.

So for comfort and for visibility, we need an awning, and Elgy Gillespie has volunteered to provide one. 

This morning other volunteers and staff provided some other good suggestions too.

We can avoid too much clutter--one set of flyers burying others--if we have flyers organized into accordion files.  Denise Selleck volunteered to spend an hour helping me get this started.

Denise also suggested that we have a couple of bulletin boards set up like a poster session at conferences so that people could see at a glance some of what CCSF has to offer.

These posters could possibly be attached to the proverbial awning or put on easels.

Student ambassadors suggested having departments color code their flyers so we can spot them more easily, distinguishing one from another.  Because colors are limited but flyers seem not to be, we may be able to achieve the same result if we file our flyers and have that bulletin boards!

Another suggestion from our student ambassadors was to rotate what we focus on each time. For example, today we wanted to be sure that Free City was prominent.  At the same time we became familiar with where to locate flyers for the specific interests expressed by the passers by.

We should have a flyer giving the dates, times, and locations  that the placement tests will be given.  I think Leslie Milloy said they'd been giving them daily (or was it weekly?) on the Ocean Campus. 

We did have the flyer giving information on the one-day testing and matriculation process of native English speakers. 

We need to make the application process simpler and more user-friendly.  Someone from UC Santa Cruz said theirs was a lot easier to use than City College's. 

CCSF also needs to remove the stumbling block of insisting that students declare a major.  Other colleges make it possible to say "Undecided," but students applying for CCSF can't choose that response.

Donna Hayes also said that some colleges indicate after each major  for which ones students can get financial aid.  Our students need that information too. 

The courses and departments students asked about were almost as diverse as our college itself and included

A public speaking class for people in business who need help with their English pronunciation

Environmental Science

Drawing and painting

Ceramics

Child Development

physical fitness

Advanced Japanese

Beginning Spanish

Diagnostic Imaging

Social Justice

College credit courses for high school students at Sacred Heart and Wallenberg

As usual the police, including one who's taking Administrative Justice at CCSF, came by. 

It's NOT usual for the CCSF chancellor to come by, so  Mark Rocha's doing that was very much appreciated.  I had the chance to talk to him about both about decisions he'd made at Pasadena Community College and his degrees in engineering (relating to his work after  Hurricane Sandy) and in literature.

For several outreach events, Board of Trustees President Thea Selby has been an active participant, which provides both inspiration and a model to follow.  Today, for example, she took several Free City postcards and approached people.  When one would-be student said she had had trouble applying and had, therefore, given up, Thea found a student ambassador to help her with the process.

I'd heard good things about Leslie Milloy, so I was glad that she showed up and helped out, giving me the chance to let her know the good things being said behind her back!

I got a coconut and then a refill, found out what all the white tents on campus were one week, saw Mission Dolores friends of a CCSF instructor who became a priest, and got to see Kathe Burke in an improvided soccer game with a toddler.  I even got to tell student ambassadors about "The Big Sick" and "Kedi" but very briefly because we were BUSY!!!

Mission Door-to-Door Walk for Free City College Spearheaded by Leslie Simon

This morning (Saturday, June 17, 2017) Leslie Simon brought us together at the Cafe Boheme for an orientation to walk door to door in the Mission with the good news that City College will be free beginning in the Fall this year.

We also wanted to make Mission residents aware of what PODER and ACCE are doing to assure more affordable housing.

Here you see Leslie Simon, who organized this action, as she gives the floor to Athena Waid, head of Organizing for the teachers' unions AFT 2121,  and Shanell Williams, member of the Board of Trustees.

Thea Shelby, the President of the Board of Trustees, also participated.

The group grew in number after 9:00 am.  Leslie treated volunteers to coffee or tea.

We headed out to talk to residents of the Mission and leave door hangers, and on our way someone passing by thanked us for what we were doing.  She turned out to be Hillary Ronen, who's on the board of Supervisors.  She's the one whose office I visited in City Hall, where she had an installation of art by Jane R. Willson--Metamorphosis--on March 8 after the rally for A Day without Women.

She's also the one who spoke so well (dynamically, sounding sincere) at the Quinceañera of La Colectiva on May 24.  http://tinamartinsanfranciscovistas.blogspot.com/2017/06/la-colectiva-chance-for-domestic.html

This provided a photo op showing the team I was one with Marcy, an independent journalist, and Cayla, a student on the far right and Hillary and the man working with her to establish another Navigation Center with one of the aides in Hillary Ronen's office.  

Some people opened their doors and greeted us  in a very friendly way.  A man said his wife was a student at City College, and a passerby on the street said, "I'm only paying twenty-six dollars this semester.  Thank you!" (There is still a heatlth fee of $17 and a web registration fee, which can be waived if sutdents register in person, staring August. 7.  The student activity fee of $5 and the student representative fee of $1 are optional.  The $46 per unit is covered, so the students save a lot!)

One man called out to me when I was about to climb the steps of his house.  "I live there.  Can I help you?"  He didn't want his mother to have to climb down a long flight of stairs.

When I explained what we were doing he said, "Oh, my mother went to City College in nineteen sixty two and sixty three."  We talked about its being free then--a good tradition to return to!

CCSF Has Chosen Rocha as New Chancellor--as of July 1st

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Mark-Rocha-selected-as-new-CCSF-chancellor-11220400.php

Nanette Asimov reports that CCSF has chosen as the next Chancellor a New Yorker with a doctorate in literature and an MA in engineering.  He has written scholarly papers, including one about the plays of August Wilson!

Here's what I learned from Wikipedia:  His scholarly works focused on African-American and Latino drama and literature, including Wilson and Tennessee Williams.  What would the Latino drama be in Tennessee Williams?  The Rose Tattoo?  (The movie starred a spicy Rita Moreno, who's since talked about being type-cast.)

Rochas publicly spoke out against Proposition 187, which restricted undocumented immigrants from access to California's public education system.

Lots of controversy over him flared up at Pasadena Community College, when he agreed to doing away iwth the winter quarter.  The faculty and staff gave him a no confidence vote.

Then the Pasadena Community College District did an evaluation without input from faculty and staff, so faculty and staff did their own, and he got a score of 23-0 with one abstension.

There was some kind of shady deal when he quit in 2014 but was to get paid more than 403,000 for the next years.  He had to give back the money.

CCSF Outreach at Sunday Streets Bayview, April 9, 2017

Carole Meagher, Donna Hayes, Elgy Gillespie, and Danny Halford with the SF community.

Below right:  Danny Halford introduces Student Ambassador Ayesha Shabbir and Board of Trustee President Thea Selby.

Student Ambassador Zacaria Palacios with a cookie I made.  I'm so grateful when anyone likes what I make!  See my Veganista blog.  http://mynameisveganista.blogspot.com/2017/04/vegan-cookies-appreciated-by-peers-and.html   

Elgy Gillespie is covering this event for the ESLetter in her very energetic, humorous way.

Elgy Gillespie (ESL instructor) Danny Halford (organizer), Tom Temprano (member of Board of Trustees) and I pose for the really nice guy representing Bottleshae, Winston Tam.  Tom Temprano had come after the  ribbon-cutting at the re-opening of  the LBGT center.

I like the way Zacaria moved down to the height of the little girl he was talking to.

Not pictured is Ellen Wall, whose name came up because she's been a big supporter of CCSF and was misssed at a meeting held the day before.  She's recuperating from a hip injury at the Jewish Home in SF.

We had a beautiful day for CCSF outreach at Sunday Streets in the Bayview, and I think Jeff Jelsmo, the site coordinator of Sunday Streets, was right that moving farther south near Bancroft on Third Street meant more foot traffic.

I loved the ride down Third Street, an area of the city I don't see very often.  We passsed Delancey, 4th and King, Mission Rock, Mariposa, , Evans, Oakdale--all names I'd heard for years, but the ride make them concrete.  I met a nice family who were going in the wrong direction and told them I had done that on occasions in spite of living in SF!

Danny Halford, the organizer of CCSF Outreach at Sunday Streets,  and Alex Guiriba, Associate Dean of Outreach, were there before 10:30, and the student ambassadors Zacharia Palacios and Ayesha Shabbir were there all day.

Thea Selby, President of the Board of Trustees, and Tom Temprano arrived in the afternoon--Tom Temprano after the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the newly renovated LGBT Center at 1800 Market.

Donna Hayes, a counselor, had not committed but came and helped out a lot.  Ophelia Clark, Chair of the Business Department,  also came by to help tho' not scheduled to do so.

Carole Meagher of Business also did a lot to help.

A Russian couple came by.    Her English was very basic, but she communicated a lot.  They lived in the apartments on Armstrong and 3rd Street, which she pointed out to me, saying it was very dangerous or had been.  I wasn't sure of the tense.  I think she told me a Russian taxi driver had been killed.  She also said, "Chinese, Chinese, Chinese.  It's Chinatown."  I think she and her husband were in senior housing.

She told me, "You have beautiful skin" and pulled the skin on her cheek to show me what skin meant.  I said, "Oh, is my skin all right?"  and she said, "Not all right.  Very, very good."

I was happy to hear that.  But even more I was interested in where people live and how they feel about it, however anecdotal.

 I asked a passerby if she was interested in summer school, and she said, "No, but I'm glad the proposition was passed so that classes will be free.  That should help you get more people."

I was startled and pleased  that she was aware and so articulate on the subject!   Other volunteers noted that not all passers-by were so well informed.

More photos:  

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/7995a2wuhabkcjs/AACyohGma5KJophjZMSL0yMza

Dennis Johnson Is Spirit in Action!

Dennis Johnson, a friend and colleague of many years at CCSF, hasn't retired from giving sensational benefit piano recitals for Spirit in Action. 

spiritinaction.org


 (Janet Fowler drove  Lauri Fried Lee, Shehla Khan, Bill Shoaf and me to Point Richmond to hear him play, and we saw Robin Mackey, another CCSF friend and colleague about to retire.)

Besides being an extraordinary pianist, he has a great sense of humor, and he knows that we are OLD friends, so he even excused us in advance for any visits to the restroom we might have to make between numbers.


He said that he had been alone at the piano for so long that he took notes on how to behave in public: Don't hum. Don't moan. Don't drool.... 

He played pieces by Scarlatti, Haydn, Chopin, Lamb, Brahms, and Franck, and he didn't drool at all!. 

He told us that Scarlatti had written 550 piano pieces but not to worry because he was going to play only three of them.  

 After he played three "Rags," he quipped "This may be the first time anyone's gone from playing  rags to Brahams at a recital, but when  you're retired, you can do whatever you want to do."

 He thanked his wife Marsha for being the page turner, and someone (Janet Fowler)  added "and more!" 

Their charming (and handsome) son Carl is here with Marsha and Dennis.

Then I had Dennis fake-play so I could take a picture without being disruptive!

He gives tidbits of information, too, and it's all new to me and helps me be a better listener since my usual choice of music is show tunes.  (I wonder how Joseph Lamb and other ragtime composers would regard the musical Ragtime if they were still around.)

I have to say, too, that when he played Chopin's Etude in E major, I wondered whether I'd heard that on an old Elaine May-Mike Nichols album."  

Someday I hope we get to hear Dennis play Ben Harney's "You've Been a Good Old Wagon, but You Done Broke."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEBs_mpTH6w