Compost bins behind the culinary department contain food and paper products. Both containers contain materials that are completely compostable. CHRISTINA R. HERNANDEZ / GUARDSMAN

By Lauren Tyler
Staff Writer

Composting has been an uphill battle for the recycling department at City College due to the lack of knowledge on proper recycling and composting procedures according to Recycling Coordinator Carlita Martinez.

Almost all food scraps are compostable. Paper products, such as used paper plates and paper scraps are compostable as well. Plastic, glass and aluminum however, are not but have a home in the recycling bin, said Martinez.

Recycling and composting have both been highly utilized over the past year at City College, with approximately 55 percent of the 2000 tons of waste generated from City College in 2007 being diverted from the main waste stream according to an annual report generated by the recycling department.

The majority of the waste at City College is “compostable, some recyclable, but mostly compostable,” said Martinez.

California had originally set a goal of 50 percent diversion in 2002, according to the State’s Integrated Waste Management Board Web site. For the city and county of San Francisco, the same diversion goal was set in 2000, though the city and county’s goal is now 75 percent, which, Martinez said, “is uniquely San Francisco.”

Presently, there are a few departments at City College involved in composting. The Culinary Arts and Hospitality Department has increased their composting containers from four to twelve over the last year.

After beginning to compost, they now avoid over “100 pounds of waste [from] a considerable amount of eggs and food trim per day,” said chief instructor chef Keith Hammerich.

Also, the graphic arts department plays a vital role in the development of a stronger recycling department by providing poster art and literature seen throughout the school. Each semester a new series of art promoting a more environmentally conscientious school is developed.

City College student Jaz Vassar said she believes there should be an environmental prerequisite.

“Once you know, it’s hard to go back,” said Vassar.

Kristina Lewis, another City College student, feels that it is just ignorance that is hindering City College from becoming a more sustainable campus.

Vassar and Lewis both recycle at home but composting still has yet to catch up.

“I hope I am doing my part,” said Lewis.

Martinez said that hopefully environmental literacy will become part of the class catalog, allowing the recycling department to reach students on broader level.

By Nick Squires
Staff Writer

The City College women’s soccer team played Monterey Peninsula College at Daly City’s Gellert Field on Oct. 16, resulting in a final score of 0-0 and the Rams’ forth tie of the season.

Gelilia Mengestu led the team in shooting with three shots in both the first and second halves.

Sydney Shannon aided her team’s keeper in deflection of an important shot during the second half, and Alejandra Caro missed an opportunity to score with a free kick in the same half.

Communication within the team has improved over the season, and the Rams were quickly calling out strategies and plays with coach Cassandra Cunningham and assistant coach Nick Charilargi. The extra focus helped the Rams keep Monterey in check.

“Talk it up, Rams,” assistant coach Nick Charilargi yelled during the game.

“Communication is key,” writes Victoria Estrada on a message board to teammates.

The team’s record now stands at 0-11-4.

For the past eight weeks I’ve been getting used to my new job as a waitress.

I’m learning that the customer is always right, even when they order extra cheese telepathically instead of verbally. I’m learning to bite my tongue when my boss asks, “How does it feel to be wrong?” And I’m accepting that no one is going to ask me what my schedule is so they can come back and tip me 200 percent again.

It’s quite different from what I used to, as a stripper.

I’ll sometimes refer to getting off the pole, the transition from stripper to waitress, as “being in recovery” because it takes such effort to adjust to, and also because there’s a chance I’ll relapse. Most do.

In the final months at my club I was slowly gaining distaste for the industry that even lucrative trips to Vegas couldn’t cure. After an embarrassing eruption of drama with another dancer, I knew it was time for a change and began taking steps to soften the blow of the pay cut I was about to take.

I move into a cheaper apartment, took on roommates and finished paying off my car. I even dyed my hair back to its natural color, knowing that $300 hair treatments would soon be just a memory.

I’ve been waitressing for two months now and I’m delighted with the new, “normal” atmosphere where I meet regular people who see me as a regular girl.

Waitresses don’t have to convince their patrons that they’re hungry. They also don’t have to convince them they’ll enjoy the burger that she brings better than one delivered by a different waitress. Strippers peddle the intangible at an outrageous price, but you can’t put that on a resume.

I invite you to eavesdrop on my progress and set backs as I transition from a fantasy world of secrets and stereotypes to the real world where sweat and hard work is often under appreciated.

Boy, played by Kelly Ann Lawson (left center), and Dog, played by Denee Deckert (right center), are being electrocuted in order for Dr. Faustus, played John Warner (not pictured), to go to hell so he can save Margarita Ida and Helena Annabel, played by Sarita Cannon. AL LIN / GUARDSMAN

By Ben Taylor
Editor

Gertrude Stein’s avant-garde play, “Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights” is considered by some to be a right of passage for theater artists with modernist leanings. Many theater groups have tried their hand at the play, which dances playfully on the razors edge of incomprehensibility, but City College’s production marked the first time Dr. Faustus had been performed with a full orchestral composition to accompany the delightfully nonsensical dialogue.

This play hits you at a cerebral level, like a Bob Dylan song come to life, sucking you in to a warped place where tone, mood and imagery are everything. Do not look for meaning here. About all you need to know is that Dr. Faustus, played by John Warner, sells his soul to the devil so he cannot go to hell. but Faustus wants to go to hell so that he can help Margarita Ida and Helena Annabel, played by Sarita Cannon.

Blink your eyes and you may be scratching your head wondering what you missed. Pay close attention and you are likely to be equally as lost. It’s even better to turn off your information-reducing valve and let the weirdness overtake you.

City College’s music and theater arts department production of the play was well worth checking out for anyone interested in modernist and surrealist artistic expression, and especially for fans of Steins work.

But even for the layman, the dramatic score composed by David Ahlsrom, Patrick Toebe’s stage design , and Jeffrey Kelley’s interpretive lighting, were mesmerizing, working together perfectly to create a dreamlike world to fall into, like Alice down the rabbits hole. Tallen Sturm’s choreography was inspired, and his performance as The Viper was show stealing, graceful and mysteriously eerie.

The surreal nature of the play was further enhanced by the imaginative costume design, courtesy of Jose Leiva and Susan Linneman, which transformed the actors into spirits, specters, ghouls and ghosts from a dreamlike underworld, making you see the characters in the light of some fragile beauty which if you reached out to touch might crumble like old book pages or butterfly wings.

By Christina Hernandez
Editor

If California voters pass Proposition 4, the Abortion Waiting Period and Parental Notification Initiative, the results could potentially do more harm than good.

Proposition 4, affectionately referred to as “Sarah’s Law,” would mandate doctors to notify an unemancipated minor’s parents before proceeding with an abortion, according to the California Voter Information Guide. This would exclude medical emergencies. The Voter Information Guide 2008 also notes that, if the minor’s parents are abusive, the doctor is to notify law enforcement or Child Protective Services and then require approval for the abortion from another adult relative.

The concept has been on California ballot before. Proposition 73 and 85, two similar propositions initiated in 2005 and 2006 respectively, did not pass. Admittedly, Proposition 4 has been improved upon since the last attempt to change California’s laws surrounding abortion failed. This time, it is acceptable for the minor in question to notify another adult family member if her parents are abusive, but this still doesn’t solve the problem.

Also, “the unemancipated minor may appeal the judgment of the juvenile court,” the text of the proposed law includes.

This may appear fine on paper, but in application, can easily fail. It’s commonly known that court cases are not processed quickly and neatly. Waiting for a court case to be decided could potentially take weeks, at the very least. The embryo can’t put off growing and wait for the case to be handled. The potential for serious risks associated with abortion increase as the pregnancy furthers, according to MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia.

“Notice of an unemancipated minor’s intent to obtain an abortion may be waived by her parent,” the text of the proposed law also states.

This is one of the most disturbing sections of the text. Though it’s difficult to forget any philosophical arguments against this, it comes down to the simple fact that someone can be forced to carry and eventually bear a child. Forced.

Children are gifts, and do not deserve the title “unwanted.”

Who actually thinks an unwanted pregnancy is easy to deal with? Who promotes sex at an early age? Each side wants to protect the youth. However, it’s also clear that what’s been proposed is too much of an ideal to work in real life. Teens can’t always turn to their parents or have a relative they trust. Sometimes the people who are supposed to be nurturing and supportive are cruel and twisted.

No matter what path she takes, the life of a girl who faces an unwanted pregnancy is changed forever. It becomes different, a life complicated enough with her own internal dissonance. If she has no relative to turn to, forcing her into this situation would only make the ordeal more tumultuous, and potentially destructive for her. A teen may be too frightened to get medical help when she needs it, or even put herself through an unsafe abortion.

“Proposition 4 won’t transform abusive, dysfunctional families into stable, supportive ones,” wrote the ACLU of Northern California on their Web site.

And ridiculously, frustratingly, “Sarah,” the teen who inspired the proposition wouldn’t have benefited from it. She died because of complications due to a tear in her cervix from the abortion, according to Yeson4.net. The girl behind the tidy Anglo-American pseudonym was 15-year-old Jammie Garcia Yanez-Villegas, who was already a mother in a common-law marriage at the time of her death, according and August 2008 article in The San Diego Union-Tribune. The law would have not saved her, let alone affected her at all.

Editor – The reasons behind the elimination of the JROTC by the San Francisco Board of Education was one that was thoroughly weighed out for its potential effects on the students. The virtues attributed to the JROTC are not at all virtues that are exclusive to the program, but are in fact a reflection of qualities inherent with SFUSD. Proponents of Proposition V point out that over 90% of JROTC cadets are students of color, but fail to attribute this to the fact the over 90% of SFUSD students in general come from communities of color. Proponents of Proposition V also point out that over 90% of JROTC cadets go to college, but fail to attribute this to the fact the over 90% of SFUSD students in general also continue on to college.

The bottom line is, JROTC does not yield a higher success rate than the district as a whole; the only thing that sets it apart from general academics courses is that it’s a military program that has time and again been praised for its effectiveness in recruiting students into the military. 40-50% of JROTC graduates end up in the military, and no hard evidence to refute that has ever been produced by proponents of Proposition V.

It is also true that JROTC discriminates against LGBT cadets. It does so by denying LGBT JROTC graduates college ROTC scholarships and other benefits that non-LGBT JROTC cadets receive, an unfair way to dole out educational benefits to students. But what is also unfair to all students is the fact that $1 million of local taxes is spent to fund a program that only caters to 500 students. If we really want to foster choice for students then let’s take our money back from The Pentagon and use it to expand the existing non-military leadership programs.

Russell Stephens

‘Second Life’ is an online role-playing game where users can interact with each other in a multitude of ways —from cooking dinner for friends to having business meetings. SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF LINDEN LAB

By Aaron Light
Staff Writer

A little over a decade ago, the world was introduced to a newly surfacing concept of online role-playing games that would go on to become one of the biggest Internet phenomena ever seen. Like a computerized version of “Dungeons & Dragons”, these games, called Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games allowed people from all over the world to create online fantasy characters so they could interact with each other in a virtual world.

MMORPGs were established in 1991 with a game called “Neverwinter Nights”. This AOL-sponsored game was the first of its kind to move from text-based gameplay (so-called Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs) into actual graphics, revolutionizing the Role Playing Game world forever. Many companies soon followed suit, creating MMORPGs of their own, including “Runescape”, “Everquest”, “Ragnarok”, “MapleStory”, “Second Life”, “Guild Wars” and the ever-present “World Of Warcraft”, also referred to as “WoW”. Even movie series have licensed MMORPGs now: The Lord Of The Rings Online, The Matrix Online and Star Wars Galaxies, just to name a few.

“I’ve basically been playing ‘WoW’ since January of 2005,” 18-year-old City College student Philip O’Connor said. “I was just hanging out at the Apple store one day, and the guy there just started shoving the game in my face. I already knew about it, and he wouldn’t leave me alone, so I just kind of bought it. I didn’t make an account, though, until I knew my friends played as well.”

O’Connor is one of approximately 10 million players who have subscribed to “WoW” since its release in 2004 and contributed to the $1 billion MMORPGs made off of western revenues in 2006 alone. So how did MMORPGs become so popular?

“Five years ago the only people who played [MMORPGs] were nerds,” 20-year-old City College student Allison Gladwell said. “Games like “WoW” and “Runescape” just made them so much more accessible. As soon as word got out that you didn’t need to be a super geek to play them, the addiction just spread.”

Almost as essential as gameplay to “WoW” legacy is its addictive effects on the masses who play it. According to a June 20, 2005, Euro Gamer article, a four-month-old child in South Korea suffocated due to neglect by her “WoW”-addicted parents, who were at a nearby café playing the notorious game. Even “South Park” satirized “WoW”-addiction in their recent episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft”.

“I’ve quit multiple times, but I’ve got one friend who’s pretty much played the game non-stop for the past two and a half years,” O’Connor said. “It has been, and still is, pretty much his whole life.”

Regardless of any negative press “WoW” may receive, Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the game, has a hit on their hands. And with “Wrath Of The Lich King”, a new expansion coming out later this year, even more people are sure to be jumping on the bandwagon.

However, “WoW” costs $15 a month, leaving many to seek for a free alternative.

“Everyone focuses on ‘World of Warcraft’ when they think of MMORPGs, but it’s kind of a waste when there are others out there that don’t cost a thing,” 19-year-old City College student Jimmy Carthers said. “That’s where “Runescape” comes in.”

With an estimated 10 million active accounts, “Runescape” is the world’s most popular free MMORPG. Although the graphics are of a lesser quality than the lush 3-D landscapes of most other MMORPGs, “Runescape” makes it up to its users by having seemingly limitless possibilities. Players customize an avatar and travel around the virtual world of Gielinor, battling both monsters and fellow players, completing quests, trading, and acquiring all kinds of items.

Focusing less on the strictly fantasy-driven aspects of MMORPGs like “WoW” and “Runescape” is “Second Life”, which allows players to wander a humongous virtual world by way of a human-looking avatar to chat with each other, participate in individual and group activities, such as creating virtual businesses where they make and trade items, and literally fashion themselves a second life. Like “WoW”, some have become addicted to “Second Life”.

An August 10, 2007 article in the Wall Street Journal describes a man who spent roughly 20 hours every day playing the game. He even had a virtual wife, with whom he was spending more time than with his real spouse.

“Second Life’s” virtual landscape has also been used by leading psychologists as a testing ground for experiments, such as the recent repeat of a 1960s study that was stopped due to ethical concerns. The study, from the University of London required test subjects to administer what they thought were electric shocks to strangers at the command of an unseen authority figure.

So, what does an MMORPG player get from his game of choice? “In the sense of real-life investment with some long-term rewards, nothing really,” O’Connor said. “I play the game because I have fun playing it. What more could you ask for?”

By Aaron Light
Staff Writer

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds came to San Francisco Sept. 19, bringing their doom and gloom post-punk to a sold out show at the newly reopened Warfield Theatre.  In a set that favored their fourteenth and most recent album, “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”, the 51-year-old Cave showed he can still put on a hell of a show.

Dressed in a black suit and sporting a Fu Manchu-mustache, Cave spent the two-hour set letting loose his inner rock messiah as he sang his sex, religion and violence-drenched tales of depravity and madness. Highlights included a ripping version of 1992’s “Papa Won’t Leave You Henry”, an apocalyptic blues version of 1988’s “The Mercy Seat”, and a nasty “Stagger Lee” that closed the set.

Throughout the show, the Bad Seeds proved to be an amazing backing band, creating the base for Cave’s crazed grandeur as they laid down tight rhythms and never once broke character as stoic messengers of death and destruction.  Warren Ellis, Cave’s right-hand man, drenched almost every song in waves of brutal noise, conjured up from a heavily distorted Fender Mandocaster.

My only qualms with the show were the sound mix, in which instruments like pianos and bass were lost in favor of the constant noise Ellis emitted from the side of the stage, and the space distancing Cave from the crowd. Even though a barrier kept the crowd about a yard back from the stage, Cave did his best to attack the issue head-on, making as much physical contact with the first few rows as he could.

Reoccurring graffiti at Mission campus
On Sept. 30 and again on Oct. 8 campus police received reports of graffiti on Mission campus. On Sept. 30 a short investigation of the incident identified a suspect who allegedly has caused several hundred dollars worth of damage to college property. In a separate incident on Oct. 8, an officer noticed new graffiti in multiple locations of a stairwell on Mission campus.

Student injured at Wellness Center
Campus police responded to a report of an injured student at the Wellness Center on Oct. 8. An officer arrived at the scene along with the paramedics, who transported the student to the hospital.

Student disrupts class in Batmale Hall
Campus police responded to a student shouting obscenities and refusing to leave Batmale Hall on Oct. 6. The officers determined the student was not a danger to himself or others and the student was asked to leave and meet with the Dean of Students.

Science Hall burglary
A City College employee reported two laptops were stolen from Science Hall on
Oct.6. There were no signs of forced entry.

Stolen property recovered
Campus police stopped a vehicle at Paulding Street and San Jose Avenue on Oct. 7 for not having a tail light. During an inspection of the vehicle, the officer discovered the engine was stolen. The vehicle was impounded.

Southeast campus theft
On the Southeast campus a manager of an office leased by City College reported a laptop and other items stolen. There were no signs of forced entry.

Judge allows Chinatown construction to continue

The Montgomery-Washington Limited Partnership’s attempt to postpone construction of the new Chinatown Campus fell through with the denial of the partnership’s court injunction by a San Francisco Superior Court judge on Oct. 16, allowing preparations for the campus’ Nov. 1 groundbreaking ceremony to continue.
The partnership, which owns a tower near the proposed site of the campus, filed the injunction in attempt to postpone construction until December, when hearings for the partnership’s case against the construction will begin. Until then, progress will continue as anticipated said Martha Lucey, dean of public information and marketing.

Dr. Don Q. Griffin

City College to hold forums for Chancellor semifinalists

The Chancellor Search Committee announced the semifinalists for the Chancellor position on Oct. 8, which has been vacant since the departure of Dr. Philip R. Day Jr. in March. Interim Chancellor Dr. Don Q. Griffin, Coastline College President Dr. Ding-Jo H. Currie and Stark State College President Dr. John O’Donnell are the three candidates currently vying for the position. The college has scheduled public forums for each of the candidates during the week of Oct. 24 in the Diego Rivera Theater. Dr. O’Donnell’s forum was held on Oct 20 at 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Dr. Currie’s forum is scheduled to occur on Oct. 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Dr. Griffin’s forum will be held on Oct. 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information and links to brief biographies of the candidates, visit http://theguardsman.com/chancellorsearch.

Lou Dematteis co-teaches a photojournalism class at City College and recently put out a book called Crude Reflections.

Photojournalist to speak about drilling in the Amazon

Award-winning photojournalist and former Reuters staff photographer Lou Dematteis will give two presentations on Nov. 5 for “Crude Reflections / Cruda Realidad: Oil, Ruin and Resistance in the Amazon Rain forest”, a book co-authored with Kayana Szymczak. The book uses photos to tell the human and environmental impact of oil drilling in the Ecuadoran Amazon. The first presentation will be on Ocean campus at 11 a.m. in the Rosenberg Library, room 304; the second is scheduled for 7 p.m. on the Mission campus in room 275.

Dematteis has been traveling and photographing Ecuador since 1988, chronicling the effects of oil drilling in the region. In the 1990’s he spent time in Vietnam where he worked on “A Portrait of Viet Nam”, which documents the social and economic transformation of Vietnam. Dematteis also served for 10 years as the San Francisco photo bureau chief for Reuters. Crude Reflections is his third book.

In the Oct. 8 issue of The Guardsman, a story incorrectly stated the GIS Learning Center may offer future credit courses through the geography department. The geography department currently offers GIS courses for credit as part of a three course certificate program, but neither the courses nor the certificate are connected in any way to the GIS Learning Center.