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.