By Alex Emslie
STAFF WRITER

Members of Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations lead the march from Church Street to Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco On May 26 in support of overturning Prop. 8. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

Supporters of same-sex marriage gathered in force early Tuesday morning at St. Frances Lutheran Church and marched chanting and singing to hear the state Supreme Court’s decision on the fate of Proposition 8. The cautiously optimistic crowd erupted into boos and shouts of, “shame on you,” when the decision was announced at approximately 10:03 a.m.

Of the three arguments before California’s highest court, two challenged the constitutionality of Prop. 8’s denial of marriage to same-sex couples. In a 6-1 vote, those constitutional challenges were rejected, and the amendment to the state constitution stating “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” was upheld.

The third argument before the state Supreme Court, raised by attorney’s representing The Official Proponents of Proposition 8 and asking for the annulment of roughly 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted before the passage of the amendment, was unanimously denied by the court. Common supreme court practice denies the retroactive application of new laws unless the legislation contains specific language requiring it. Prop. 8, as it was presented to voters, contained no such language.

Protester of the state Supreme Court's decision on upholding Prop.8 being arrested for blocking the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street in San Francisco on May 26. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

After the announcement, angry protesters moved to block the intersection of Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue, just outside City Hall. San Francisco Police Department Lieutenant Slade said, one platoon — or about 60 officers — were present at the civil disobedience following the announcement. According to sfexaminer.com, 175 protesters were arrested and released.

“This is a great demonstration between community activists and local clergy who are really outraged by the decision of the Supreme Cxourt to uphold Proposition 8,” said Rev. Roland Stringfellow of The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry. He said despite the Court’s decision not to nullify previous same-sex marriages, many protesters still saw the ruling as a defeat. “That is why we’re out on the streets today to make our voices heard and also put our bodies on the line.”  Rev. Stringfellow was arrested roughly 30 minutes later.

United Methodist Minister Israel Alvaren, who helped to coordinate about 40 clergy members with the organization One Struggle, One Fight, said he had cooperated with the SFPD to stage the protest. “Yes. We had a liaison,” an SFPD Leiutenent said. “We’re going to give them their time to express their opinions and differences, possibly for about an hour. At that point, we have to restore order.”

Proponents of Proposition 8 also made a smaller appearance Tuesday, hoisting signs reading “‘Gay’ = Perverted” and “Marriage is still one man and one woman.”

“Our social fiber is based upon the relationship between a man and a female,” said Steve Macias, student body president of Sacramento City College. “That is the beginning of the family; the beginning of society. [The] ruling upholds the right way to conduct society. Without this, we have a degradation of society.”  He also said the state Supreme Court’s decision against nullification was “politically motivated.”

Frank Parish, who said he had worked for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, was outside the Supreme Court building collecting signatures for an initiative to strike down Proposition 8. He said more than 700,000 signatures would be required, since some would disqualified. Rev. Stringfellow said they would, “get marriage equality back on the ballot hopefully as soon as 2010 and, if not, 2012.”

“As a person of faith I would just say that the fight is not over; that we struggle in the tradition of the leaders of the civil rights leaders of the past,” concluded Alvaren. “This is a civil rights issue. For those who are on our side, let them have hope that this will, in the end, be a triumph for justice and equality.”

Ramsey El-Qare contributed to this story

Thousands of students, faculty and staff from colleges and universities all over California gather at the State Capitol in Sacramento protesting the budget cuts to education on March 16. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

By Lauren Tyler and Ellen Silk
FEATURES EDITOR AND NEWS EDITOR

Thousands of students, teachers and college staff, upset with a state budget that severely cuts money from education, rallied on the steps of the State Capitol March 16, fervently chanting, “You say cut back, we say fight back.”

Marchers came from all over California to assemble in Raley Field in Sacramento for the 10 a.m. march. An estimated 2,500 City College students, faculty and staff gathered at 7 a.m. to board 47 buses bound for Sacramento.

Matt Holms, an English major at City College, said he came out to support his American Government teacher who is losing his cost-of-living increase. “I hope [legislatures] will see it does affect a lot of people,” he said.

De Anza City College student Alex Jimenez rallies the crowd outside the Capital in Sacramento, Calif. on March 16. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

The crowd’s chant, “No cuts. No fees. Education should be free,” could be heard as they made their way across the Old Sacramento bridge.

“It would mean fewer hours for people, fewer jobs. We are already reeling from having to do double, sometimes triple, the work. We’re all hurting but we do the best we can. Cuts would be really disastrous, jobs just couldn’t get done,” said, Steve Kech, public information officer and member of Service Employees International Union Local 1021.

The buses that ferried City College students and staff to Sacramento were sponsored by SEIU 1021, AFT 2121 Teachers Union, the Associated Students, the City College Bookstore and the CCSF Administration Association.

Edith Urrutia, a student in the Culinary department who was marching holding the department banner, is worried about classes in her major program. “Some classes have already been closed because there isn’t enough money to keep them open,” she said.

City College students carry a banner on their way to the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. on March 16. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

Students blocked traffic as they walked down Capitol Mall towards the capitol building. Many held signs stating California is ranked 48th in the nation in spending on education and number one in spending on prisons. They chanted, “We want education, not incarceration.”

A drum circle formed on the stage in the plaza as thousands of students reached the steps of the capitol building. The speakers took the stage at 12 p.m., starting with President of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges Richael Young.

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, one of the key-note speakers at the event, asked students to “not stop your protests until every quality California student has the best education.” He turned towards the capitol building and asked the legislature to “stop the disinvestment.”

Josh Nielsen, president of Associated Student Council at City College, also spoke. He told the audience that “education is a right, not a privilege.”

Over two thousand City College students, faculty, staff march to the Capital in Sacramento, Calif. protesting the budget cuts to higher education, March 16. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

City College board of trustee member John Rizzo spoke in regards to the $80 billion in “rosy projections” by the state budget on top of an $8 million City College budget shortfall. “At that kind of level we’re going to have to make some tough decisions. This year we are making due with not filling open positions. Next year, if this continues, it looks like we are going to have to make some really hard decisions, possibly layoffs. We don’t want to do that. That’s why we’re here today,” he said.

Chancellor Dr. Don Q. Griffin said, “The major impact of the budget for us at City College is that we have to turn away thousands of students.

Approximately 10,000 students who wanted to take classes at City College we could not give them access. Many students who are attending might not get all the classes they need for their training or retraining for jobs.”

Graph detailing City College's recent Clery Act compliance. INFOGRAPHIC BY ALEX LUTHI / THE GUARDSMAN

By Fleur Bailey and Alex Luthi
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR AND ONLINE EDITOR

In response to an article in the March 11 issue of The Guardsman, City College has begun efforts to comply with a federal law mandating regular reporting of crimes on campus, according to college officials.

Peter Goldstein, vice chancellor of finance and administration, said the college is now in the process of recruiting three college employees to help keep the police department’s crime log up-to-date, a requirement of the Jeanne Clery Act, enforced by the Department of Education.

“We are getting three people trained so we feel assured we are complying with the act,” Goldstein said. “They will be working within the office [of the department of Public Safety]. As I said before, the law is the law and we have to comply.”

Rod Santos, acting dean of student affairs and public safety, confirmed that additional people will be working in the department to tackle the required reporting. “It’s very clear to me that we can’t have just one person doing [updating] this,” Santos said.

A crime log should be updated every two business days to comply with the act, officially called the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, which requires colleges receiving federal funds to report crimes that happen on or near their campuses. The most recent entry to the San Francisco Community College District Police Department’s crime log is dated Feb. 12 2009.

Officer Christian Smith of the SFCCDPD is the only person currently updating the crime log on the department’s Web site. Smith said a lack of time is the reason for infrequent entries to the crime log. Santos plans to put Smith in charge of training the additional staff members to keep the log up-to-date.

“The current crime log has really been misnamed,” Smith said. “It’s more like a summary of reports. The new log won’t be as detailed, but it will comply with the act.”

The act is named after Jeanne Clery, a freshman at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn. who was raped and murdered in her dorm room in 1986. It was established to inform students and the public about campus crime, so that students could protect themselves while on campus.

S. Daniel Carter is the director of public policy for Security On Campus, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to safety on campuses for college and university students. Carter said the organization is constantly working to ensure all federally-funded institutions across the U.S. are able to gain access to training for Clery Act compliance.

“We make the training for everyone — officers, non-police employees, security, civilians — so that more people will take it,” Carter said. “I can understand that an officer wants to be out in the field, I appreciate he may feel he’s being pulled in all different directions. But if the community is informed, they can be his power. The purpose of the Clery Act is to involve the whole community.”

San Francisco State University Police Department’s Web site is updated every night using a records management system implemented about a year and a half ago according to records supervisor Julie Shearer.

“The Department of Education Web site was not very helpful but I found a link to the Clery Act Web site, securityoncampus.org, and attended one of their training sessions in San Diego,” Shearer said.

In addition to keeping a daily crime log, the Clery Act requires colleges to collect and produce yearly statistics on different crimes occurring on and near campus, as well as producing crime alerts regarding ongoing threats to the college community.

“All I need is to get a few people trained and we can do it,” Santos said.

Editor’s note: The graphic used for the Clery Act story in the March 11 issue of The Guardsman may have confused readers by not clearly displaying the gathered data. An updated graphic is available at http://theguardsman.com/cleryact.

Bergman in front of Korphe School, Pakistan. 1996. PHOTO COURTESY OF CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE

By Lauren Tyler
FEATURES EDITOR

Winter came early in the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan during October of 1996. In the skies of this remote region of the world, a Russian MI-17 helicopter, equipped with plastic lawn chairs as seats, maneuvered towards Korphe village, in the northern region of Baltistan.

For City College librarian Julia Bergman and nine other foreigners on board of the helicopter, this was the last stop of their six-week long trip through Central Asia.

“We were flying over the most amazing landscape…crystal-clear blue skies and the turquoise Indus river,” Bergman said. “The Karakoram Mountain contain the highest concentration of high peaks in the world, it’s simply shocking.”

The pilot landed the helicopter in a valley. The mountaineer asked if anyone wanted to visit a village and when Bergman asked if it was appropriate for her to go, a group member with mountaineering experience assured her it was fine. Bergman made her ascension up an arduous, rocky trail.

As they got closer to the top they heard the voices of children. “All of a sudden we were surrounded by a dozen adolescent boys,” Bergman said.

Greg Mortenson with students at Sitara school, Wakhan corridor, Afghanistan. PHOTO COURTESY OF CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE

The boys questioned where Bergman was from. “I said I was from the United States — that wasn’t good enough. So I said I am from California and that wasn’t good enough either. So then I said I am from San Francisco. They put their hands on me and started leading me back down the trail.”

They were leading her back to the valley where a sign, literally and figuratively, would forever change her.

“On the far edge of this open area there’s a metal sign and it reads ‘The American Himalayan Organization, San Francisco, California. Thank you Jean Hoerni,’” Bergman said.

Hoerni was Bergman’s cousin, Jennifer Wilson’s, husband. The renowned Swiss-born physicist made much of his fortune in the Silicon Valley, but was also an avid mountaineer when he was younger. Based on his own travels through the Karakoram Mountains, he had acquired a fondness for the area and donated thousands to build schools in the region.

Bergman remembered, “before I had left that July…he had given money to build a school.” She also recalled Hoerni talking about a bridge over a mighty river leading to a school on top of a mountain. She asked the boys if those things were there, and they were.

“I am neither religious or spiritual. I am rather pragmatic, but I got so emotional, I started to cry,” she said.

The experience left a lasting impression on Bergman — in 2003 she became the chair of the board of directors of the Central Asia Institute.

When Bergman returned to San Francisco in mid-November of 1996 she immediately picked up the phone and called her cousin. The phone rang but nobody answered. Two hours later, Bergman’s cousin Jennifer Wilson called her back.

“Where have you been?” Wilson asked.

“I just got home a couple of hours ago,” Bergman said. Wilson explained that she and Hoerni were visiting San Francisco from their home in Seattle because Hoerni needed a blood transfusion. Bergman asked Wilson to put Hoerni on the phone. “Jean, I saw the Korphe school,” she said. “No?” Hoerni gasped.

The writing on the bathroom mirror in Mortenson’s home in Bozeman, Mont. reads, “When your heart speaks, take good notes.” His heart spoke to him when he attempted to climb K2 in Baltistan, Pakistan, which, at 8,611 meters, is the world’s second highest mountain.

Greg Mortenson, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and co-author of New York Times bestseller “Three Cups of Tea,” spoke at City College on March 4, on account of his work as co-founder and executive director of CAI, an organization which has built 78 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, primarily for girls.

He grew up near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, where his parents developed a teaching hospital and an international school, and had always taken well to climbing.

Climbing K2 was much more sentimental to Mortenson. His sister Christa, whom he loved tenderly, had died at the age of 23 from a severe epileptic attack. In her honor, Mortenson wanted to place Christa’s amber necklace at the peak of K2.

While he attempted to climb K-2 he encountered a theme he would become readily familiar with what he considered failure.

“Failure”, the title of the first chapter in Mortenson’s book “Three Cups of Tea.” To him, failure meant “not the end of the road, but its a way to grow and find a different path.”

Greg Mortenson, co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and Julia Bergman, retired librarian discuss his book Three Cups of Tea outside the Diego Rivera Theatre on March 4, 2009. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

On his journey, after having been lost for days, emaciated and not bathing for nearly three months. Mortenson found a path - it was the path leading to Korphe Village. Haji Ali, the village nurmadhar — village chief — stood placidly at the edge of the village.

He welcomed Mortenson graciously, which is an important tradition in Baltistan culture. Haji Ali and the villagers nursed him back to health. It was then that Mortenson had his first three cups of tea.

As a trauma nurse, Mortenson was able to mend wounds and set bones, a luxury previously missing from the villager’s life. The angrezi, or strange white man, soon acquired the name Dr. Greg.

One day, with Haji Ali standing beside him, Mortenson looked over the ledge to the valley. He saw 84 school children without a teacher copying multiplication tables in the sand with sticks.

“A girl in the village came up to me and asked, ‘can you help us build a school?’ I promised her I would,” Mortenson said.

After consulting with experts on the area, Mortenson realized he needed $12,000 to build the school.

Upon his return to Berkeley, Calif., he began his quest for funding. He hand-wrote 580 letters, but of all the “Dear Mr. Michael Jordan and Dear Mr. Sylvester Stallone” letters, Mortenson only received one check from Tom Brokaw for $100.

As he was walking through the dismal fog on his way to a graveyard shift at the University of California Hospital, Mortenson felt that his hope was dampened.

His mother suggested he fly to River Falls, Wis., where she was the principal of Westside Elementary school. Timidly, her son spoke to the students about the children in Baltistan and his desire to build a school there.

“A fourth grader named Jeffrey came and said ‘I have a piggy bank and I want to help you,’” Mortenson said. Six weeks later, Westside Elementary raised 62,340 pennies. This was the beginning of Pennies for Peace, a fund raising effort 3,400 schools nationwide are now involved in.

“The irony is that movie stars and adults didn’t help, it was the children,” Mortenson said.

With meager capital and all of his belongings sold, Mortenson was frustrated but fastidious. Tom Vaughan, a fellow mountaineer and doctor at UCSF, had listened to Mortenson’s troubles. One morning, Vaughan handed him a prescription pad with the name and number of Jean Hoerni, who had read an article about Mortenson.

Mortenson called Hoerni, who immediately asked whether Mortenson would run off with his money if he were to give it. Mortenson said he simply wanted to educate children and said he needed $12,000.

“You’re not bulls—ing? You can really build your school for 12 grand?’’ asked Hoerni. “Yes, sir,” Mortenson humbly replied.

The money was transferred and CAI was born. Months and checks later, Hoerni died on January 12, 1997. In his will he left Mortenson $22,315 along with an endowment of nearly one million dollars for CAI.

Mortenson spoke at Hoerni’s memorial service at Stanford University Chapel.

“The last person who got up to speak talked about Baltistan. It was the most emotional speech. Of course this was Greg Mortenson,” Bergman said.

She approached Mortenson and said that she had seen the Korphe school. “You’re the blonde in the helicopter,” he said. Bergman told him about her impression of the school and said she wanted to help.

“Well, I want to build a library,” Mortenson said.

“I’m a librarian,” Bergman said matter-of-factly. “I was the token educator. Teacher training became my fixation.”

Originally, most CAI board members were mountaineers. Bergman changed that structure and began introducing more educators.

She inducted three City College faculty members. Abdul Jabbar, an English and interdisciplinary studies professor and ESL instructors Joy Durighello and Bob Irwin. Jabbar is a member of the board. Irwin and Durighello assisted with teacher training and wrote the Balti Handbook.

The official languages of Pakistan are Urdu and English. Through the use of English the Balti Handbook was developed. “We developed exercises in reading, writing and comprehension. We wrote it as we were teaching” Durighello said.

“Half of our organization is from City College,” Mortenson said on March 4 at the Diego Rivera theater. More importantly, he discussed the pertinence of CAI and its influence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“It took three years to build one school, now we have 78,” Mortenson said. “The more I do this, the more I am convinced that global literacy should be our top priority.”

Pakistan and Afghanistan are continuously in tumultuous states. Insurgents from the Taliban and al-Qaida continue to mar any progress, especially in regards to education for girls. The Taliban, for example, bans education for females, according “Journey of Hope,” a CAI publication.

“Jihad is really a spiritual quest. A boy has to get his mother’s permission to go. If she is educated she’s not going to let him go. People want to find ways to create peace…its literacy, its educating women,” Bergman said.

“We can drop bombs, or build roads or hand out condoms. But unless the girls are educated, the societies won’t change,” Mortenson said.

Mortenson demonstrated to the audience that in 2000 only 800,000 students were enrolled in school in Pakistan. The majority were boys, ages 5-15. In 2008 that number exploded to 7.2 million students, two million of those girls.

“Their [extremist groups] biggest fear is not the bullet, its the pen,” Mortenson said. “The real enemy that we’re fighting is ignorance. It’s ignorance that breeds hatred.”

While meeting with General David Petraeus and Admiral Michael Mullen of the United States Central Command Mortenson came to an important realization. “They all said there’s no military solution in Afghanistan. They say education is the key,” he said.

“Three Cups of Tea” is now required reading for counterintelligence training and for U.S. special forces about to be deployed to Afghanistan.

CAI continues its mission, from its board members in San Francisco and its staff members in Bozeman, Mont. to promote peace “one school at a time.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MCT CAMPUS

By Alex Emslie and Ellen Silk
STAFF WRITER AND NEWS EDITOR

The invention of video games represented a renaissance in the field of entertainment. Games were no longer hindered by the imagination of their players but instead by the artistry of their creators.

The first video game was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947. It used analog circuitry to control a cathode ray tube beam to position a dot on the screen. The game, patented as the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device in 1948, was inspired by radar displays from World War II.

Brookhaven National Laboratory introduced “Tennis for Two” in 1958. William Higinbotham, the game’s creator and a nuclear physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project , wrote, “It might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which would convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society.”

“Tennis for Two” was a tennis court on an oscilloscope screen. The ball, a moving dot, left trails as it bounced to alternating sides of the net. Players served and volleyed using remotes with buttons and rotating dials.

In 1967 Ralph Baer, chief engineer at the defense contractor Sanders Associates, and his team created a game as part of a top secret Brown Box project to use as a U.S. military training tool. The game consisted of two dots chasing each other around the screen. Baer’s team continued improving the technology and also created the very first video game “controller” — a light-gun that would work with the TV system.

Six years later the top secret status was dropped and Sanders Associates licensed the Brown Box to electronics company Magnavox. The box was renamed, redesigned and released as the very first home gaming system — the Magnavox Odyssey.

Steve Russell, while attending MIT in 1961, developed an interactive video game on a mini-computer. Russell’s “Spacewar” inspired two separate breakthroughs in the following decades.

“Galaxy” was one of the first commercial video games. It was built and installed at the Stanford Tresidder student union in September 1971 by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck.

The gameplay in “Galaxy” was based on “Spacewar”  and involved two armed spaceships — “the needle” and “the wedge” — shooting at one another. The ships had limited fuel, missiles and a last-ditch hyperspace option that would place the ship at a random location on the screen.

That same year, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of “Spacewar” and called it “Computer Space.” Nutting Associates bought the game and manufactured 1,500 “Computer Space” machines in November 1971. Although the game was unsuccessful because of its long learning-curve, it is recognized as the first mass-produced video game offered for commercial sale.

The latest version of the popular video game "Madden NFL 09." IMAGE COURTESY OF MCT CAMPUS

Bushnell and Dabney went on to found Atari and released their first major success, “Pong,” in 1972. Atari and Magnavox went on to survive a slump in the video game market in the late 1970s. In 1977 Atari released a cartridge-based console called the Video Computer System, better known as the Atari 2600. The VCS had an arsenal of nine games and quickly became a very popular console.

The 1980s also saw the rise of the home computer, the most popular of which were IBM and Apple Macintosh. Both of these offered new possibilities for video games with better graphics, sound and higher quality resolution.

“The first game I ever played was probably ‘Missile Command’,” said City College computer science major William Eagleton of the Atari 2600. “My dad worked for Atari, so we would get test cartridges.”

On Dec. 7, 1982, Warner Communications’ — Atari’s parent company — stock dropped 32 percent after it was announced that VCS sales did not meet predictions. The following year, many companies who only made games — often called third-party companies — declared bankruptcy, and Atari split into two separate companies. In 1983 it was discovered that Ray Kassar, then head of Atari, was guilty of insider trading. He immediately resigned.

Masayuki Uemura, working for Nintendo, revived the video game in 1985 with the Nintendo Entertainment System. The cartridge system had two controllers with multiple buttons that allowed the player to jump, run and do more with the character on the screen. Two very popular Nintendo games were “Super Mario Brothers” and “Duck Hunt.”

Sega’s Master System, while graphically superior to the NES, failed to make any kind of lasting impression in the U.S. market. When Sega introduced Genisis, the company began an aggressive marketing campaign, not only to customers, but also to developers. Genesis quickly grew popular thanks to their line-up of quality arcade conversions, sports games, and the help of game developer Electronic Arts.

Competition between Nintendo and Sega colored the video game market through the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Sony released Playstation in 1994. The company had grown from a radio repair shop in post WWII Tokyo to a powerful electronics corporation. As of 2008, Sony had sold 140 million Playstation 2 units.

In the ‘90s parents demonstrated they were willing to spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade systems and the home console was here to stay.

“I like a lot of the classic games. My favorite game is probably ‘Doom,’” Eagleton said. “Between ‘93 and ‘98 was the golden age of games for me.”

Today’s innovations in video game technology are quantified in generations.

The three major competitors of today’s gaming market — Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 — challenge each other to create an evermore immersive gaming experience measured by realism of graphics and plots. Gone are the simple days of games like “Pong” and “PacMan,” but the virtual 3D worlds of today wouldn’t be possible without the 2D screens of the past.

By Graham Henderson

MANAGING EDITOR

It’s a tough time to be a car manufacturer. Not because the Big Three U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler­ — have seen their year-to-date sales drop almost 50 percent since last year, but because the time has come for automakers to invest in new technology.

The decision is not easy because it’s not yet clear what the technology of the future will be. Fuel cells, diesel, hybrid technology, electric vehicles and clean diesels are all fighting for the same market.

FUEL CELLS

Fuel cell vehicles use hydrogen as fuel to create electricity and emit only water. Fuel cells are about 80 percent efficient, meaning that of the fuel put in, 80 percent is made into electricity, according to HowStuffWorks.com. Internal combustion engines typically achieve 25 to 30 percent efficiency.

Fuel cell vehicles are often considered the holy grail of green motoring, but making them affordable is a challenge that no manufacturer has achieved.

All major automakers have proudly displayed fuel cell concept cars, some have even built working prototypes, but so far none are available for purchase.

The only fuel cell vehicle available to the public at all is the Honda FCX Clarity.  The company has already leased a number of them in Los Angeles with plans to eventually deliver about 200, but the $600 per month lease is heavily subsidized.

The Clarity has a 270 mile range per tank of hydrogen and returns the equivalent of 68 mpg, according to Honda’s Web site.

In addition to the high price, there are few gas stations that offer hydrogen. Customers are also deterred by images of the hydrogen-filled German zeppelin Hindenburg exploding while mooring in New Jersey, even though hydrogen is no more dangerous than propane or gasoline.

DIESEL

While diesels have been slow to catch on in the U.S. outside of the full-size truck market, in Europe they represent over 60 percent of new cars sold.

Small European-market diesel cars offer mileage that tops hybrids like the Prius. Ford’s Fiesta, a compact hatchback that’s smaller than a Ford Focus, offers 62.8 mpg, according to the European Union. Even better is the similarly-sized Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion, which is a regular Polo optimized for efficiency. With a 3 cylinder 1.2 liter engine it returns 71.3 mpg.

Diesels also produce less carbon dioxide than comparable gasoline engines. However, they emit more nitrous oxide and hydrocarbons.

Although diesel prices fluctuate, it is generally more expensive than gasoline. In Europe, diesel is taxed less than gasoline, making it cheaper by comparison.

Stricter U.S. emissions standards along with the American public’s lack of demand has deterred most car makers from producing diesels for the U.S.

That has begun to change as new technology, including particulate filters and urea injection, makes diesels cleaner. Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW all offer diesels. Urea injection reduces nitrous oxide emissions by up to 99 percent.

New diesels require low sulfur diesel fuel. Although it is widely available, a gallon of low sulfur diesel requires 25 percent more crude oil than a gallon of gasoline. Diesels can also be run on bio-diesel, which is renewable and less polluting but also produces less power.

Toyota Priuses for sale at Melody Toyota in San Bruno, Calif. on March 19. MIHAIL MATIKOV / THE GUARDSMAN

HYBRIDS

Hybrid vehicles, which use an electric motor in conjunction with a gasoline engine, are the most prevalent type of alternative car. When the car decelerates, the brakes convert the inertia of the car to electricity to recharge the battery. Some hybrids, like Toyota’s Prius, can operate at low speeds using only the electric motor, while others, like Honda’s Civic Hybrid, require the engine to be running at all times.

Hybrids have a huge advantage — they already work with the existing infrastructure. They can be refueled at any gas station and have the same distance range as conventional cars, which gives the driver the freedom and flexibility to travel whenever, wherever.

Hybrids are not perfect, however.  Top Gear, a leading U.K. automotive magazine published by the BBC, recently called the Prius, “a sham act if there ever was one.” The Prius, like most hybrids on sale, uses nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Mining of nickel can be environmentally destructive. Toyota buys nickel for Prius batteries from a mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The mine has created such a dead zone around it, that NASA now uses the area to test lunar rovers.

“The acid rain around Sudbury has destroyed all the plants and the soil slid off the hillside,” David Martin, a Canadian Greenpeace coordinator, told the British newspaper Mail.

Future hybrids, like Chevrolet’s highly promoted Volt, will feature plug-in technology. The car can be charged in six to seven hours at a regular electrical outlet, allowing it to drive without using the gasoline engine until the charge is depleted and the engine kicks in. The car then operates like a normal hybrid. The Volt goes on sale in 2010.

ETHANOL

Using ethanol as a fuel has been in the limelight recently. It has the advantage of being used in conventional internal combustion engines. Missouri, Minnesota, and Hawaii all require a small - up to 10 percent - amount of ethanol to be blended into all gasoline.

There are a number of cars available in almost every market sector from both GM and Ford that can run on E85, a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. However, E85 is not widely available in the U.S. As of 2008 there were about 1,700 gas stations in the country offering E85, but nearly all of them were in the Corn Belt, led by Minnesota and Illinois.

Even where E85 is available, it’s hardly an economic or environmental silver bullet. In the U.S. ethanol is made mostly from corn, which has created jobs and driven the price of corn to record highs. While creating jobs and reducing dependence on foreign oil are admirable, creating fuel from a crop that is used for food, either directly for human consumption or as cattle feed, is not sustainable on a global scale. The earth has a limited amount of fertile land and there’s not enough to provide for both fuel and food. Making the problem worse is the fact that much of the farming is done with diesel farm equipment that causes pollution.

The other drawback of ethanol is that it contains less energy than gasoline, which results in a decrease in mileage because more fuel needs to be burned to get the same amount of power.
Ethanol can aslo be made from sugar cane, petroleum, or waste products from other crops.

As a fuel, however, it’s difficult to fault. Many racecars use ethanol. Lotus, a maker of British sports cars, even produced an E85-powered version of its Exige sports car, calling it “the most powerful road version of the Lotus Exige ever.” The 265 hp supercharged car was built to show what was capable with ethanol but was never put into production.

ELECTRIC

Electric cars have the advantage of zero tailpipe emissions, but this is somewhat misleading. Electric cars still create emissions, the only difference is that the emissions come from a power plant instead of the car. Emissions from electric cars are impossible to define, because it depends on how the electricity used to charge the car is produced. In the U.S., 55 percent of electricity still comes from non-renewable — and polluting — coal-burning power plants. In California, which has a variety of power plants, electric vehicles would be significantly cleaner than their gasoline counterparts.

The biggest problem with electric vehicles is their lack of distance range, coupled with long charging time, this makes electric car ownership less appealing. Although many electric vehicles today resemble glorified golf carts, the trend is starting to change.

The electric Tesla Roadster, a two-seat sports car made by Tesla Motors, is based on a Lotus chassis, making it both high performing and environmentally friendly. With a charging time of about four hours using a special electrical outlet, the Roadster offers a range of 240 miles, according to Tesla, although hard driving can significantly lower the range.

Celebrities are cuing up. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney, among others, have placed orders.

There are more practical options as well. MINI offered a lease program on an electric version of its popular MINI Cooper to customers living in New York, New Jersey, and California. The electric version sacrifices the back seats of the regular car to make space for the battery packs, but offers a range of 150 miles and a top speed of 95 mph. MINI plans for the car to go on sale between 2010 and 2015.

By Fleur Bailey and Alex Luthi
STAFF WRITER AND ONLINE EDITOR

In the face of increasing concerns for public safety, a review of City College records by The Guardsman has revealed the college appears to be failing to comply with the Jeanne Clery Act, a federal law regulating the reporting of crime on college campuses.

While the college appears to be complying with portions of the law, the requirement of any college or university that employs a campus police department or security force to publish a regularly updated crime log has not been followed by City College.

According to the Clery Act, formerly the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, the college’s requirements can be simplified into three parts: A requirement to produce yearly statistics of crime of a certain nature on campus, a requirement to issue timely warnings regarding ongoing threats to the campus, and a daily crime log no more than two business days out of date.

Graph detailing City College's recent Clery Act compliance. INFOGRAPHIC BY ALEX LUTHI / THE GUARDSMAN

City College does not currently have a full-time chief of police, but Rod Santos, dean of public safety for City College has undertaken some of the responsibilities until a suitable replacement is found. Santos said although he was familiar with the Clery Act, he was unaware that City College was not fully complying with all requirements.

“It’s news to me that we might not be following the Clery Act,” he said. “I didn’t know that there was a 48 hour turnaround time [for crime log updates]. My definition of it is broad; I thought it was just about reporting campus crime.”

Although the San Francisco Community College District Police Department Web site does contain recent crime alerts and annual crime statistics, the last entry to the police log is a report of a stolen backpack that was recovered by the SFCCDPD on Feb. 12. As of press time, the college’s crime log would have to be up-to-date for all reported crimes as of March 6 to comply with the Clery Act.

“I think it is important for students to know what’s happening,” said Yuji Matsumoto, 23, a Japanese and English major and a docent of the Diego Rivera Mural at City College. “It’s in their job description to update their crime log. Accountability is the bottom line and I think it’s irresponsible if they’re not doing it.”

Currently, only one SFCCDPD officer undertakes the task of updating the campus’ crime log. Officer Christian Smith, who compiles the annual statistics for the college, says he uses any time he has outside of his regular duties to update the log. Smith is one of the two peace officers currently stationed at Ocean campus.

“There is no cover up, it’s not a conspiracy [why the log isn’t updated regularly], it’s just a lack of time,” he said. “We are understaffed. There are only two officers on Ocean campus right now, so we can’t be as proactive. I probably could make time, but it doesn’t feel right. I’d rather be out doing my job.”

“We have to be very careful how we handle things,” Smith said. “We’re careful how we release information without endangering the victim or making an already traumatized person more traumatized. We are very careful about victims’ rights, especially sexual battery or very sensitive cases.”

If a college is not complying fully with the Clery Act, a complaint can be filed with the U.S. Department of Education, which is in charge of enforcing Clery Act compliance.

If an ensuing investigation finds a college in violation of the Clery Act, the college can be fined a maximum $27,500 per violation. The total amount of fines can vary, depending on the gravity of the violation and the size of the institution. If the violations are severe enough, the college can lose all of its federal funding, including federal financial aid.

Eastern Michigan University is the most recent of four U.S. colleges to be fined for violating the Clery Act. The University received a $350,000 fine in June 2008 after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education uncovered that EMU had concealed the cause of death of one of its students in 2006.

Media reports stated that the student, Laura Dickinson, was raped and murdered in her dorm room. The university withheld information for 10 weeks after Dickinson’s death before announcing to her parents and the college’s community that her death was actually a homicide.

The Jeanne Clery Act, named after the daughter of Howard and Connie Clery, a freshman at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn. who was raped and murdered in her dorm room in 1986. After her death, Clery’s parents discovered Lehigh students had not been informed about 38 previous violent crimes that had occurred on campus during the three years prior to their daughter’s death.

The Clerys then pushed to have a law created to inform students and the public about crime on college campuses, in the hope that publishing information on campus crime would help students make more informed choices about their safety.

The act was revised in 1998 to include the requirement of updating the crime logs within two days of the last reported incident. While the annual statistics need only cover crimes of a certain severity, a college’s crime log must include all incidents reported to the security force or police department for the college. The log must be made available to any member of the public for inspection.

“I generally feel safe on campus,” said Akira Wong, a 27-year-old English major. “I see the crime alerts posted around campus and I’m curious so I always read them. I don’t go looking for the information, but it’s surprising that there have been so many unreported crimes.”

City College’s police department also falls under the jurisdiction of Peter Goldstein, vice chancellor of finance and administration. Goldstein said that he will work with Santos to keep the crime log up-to-date, and that Santos will ensure a second person is trained to update the log so the college will no longer rely on a single individual.

“The law is the law and we have to comply,” Goldstein said.

This is the first installment of a series highlighting public safety on community college campuses in The Guardsman. The next installment in the series will be in the March 25 issue of The Guardsman.

Freshman guards Mone Peoples (32) and Brittney Allen celebrate their trip to the Elite Eight after a hard fought victory over rival Skyline March 7 at the Wellness Center. RYAN FLORES / THE GUARDSMAN

By Bonta Hill
SPORTS EDITOR

Beating a team three times in one season is difficult, but not impossible. This past Saturday, the City College women’s basketball team proved it is indeed possible.

Facing league rival Skyline College for the third time this season, the Trojans gave the Rams a punch to the gut. Courtney Buster, who was named  second team all-state, led the way with 17 points and 23 rebounds as the Rams pulled out a 70-59 victory in front of an electric crowd at the Wellness Center. First team all-state point guard Jazmine Holmes finished with 17 points and six assists.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but we were confident,” said  Brittney Allen, who finished with 17 points and six rebounds. “I’m so happy right now for my team.”

For the second time in four seasons Coach Jamie Wong will lead her Rams to the Elite Eight. Their chances to return home as state championships are good.

The championships start Friday, March 13 and the deciding final game is scheduled for Sunday, March 15. All games this weekend will be played at Selland Arena in the Fresno Convention Center.

After a back and forth affair in the first half, the Rams took a 34-27 lead into the break, as  they were unable to shake loose a pesky Skyline squad. Trojan guard Laura Zalsey kept her squad in the game with lights out three-point shooting.

With 14 minutes to go, Skyline eventually took a brief lead. The Rams offense was a bit out of sync, but their defense picked up the game. After Skyline tied it at 45, the three-pointer became the Rams’ best friend.

“I think we wanted to make sure that we were taking good shots. Maybe we were a little more tentative, but really, in the big picture, overall we had 15 turnovers which isn’t all that horrible,” Wong said. “I am very proud of how our team played. We answered back when we needed too.”

The Rams did answer as Buster hit two layups, guards Stephanie Troung and Mone Peoples hit back-to-back three-pointers and the Rams went on a 10-0 run to take the lead for good 55-45.

Skyline wouldn’t quit. Zalsey kept hit andother three-pointer as Skyline cut the lead to 63-59. That would be Skyline’s last basket of the game.
With the crowd at the sold out gym gasping at every shot, freshman guard Brittney Allen then hit the biggest, and, quite possibly, the luckiest shot of her career.

Allen’s three-pointer bounced off the rim, went straight into the air, and fell through the basket to give the Rams a 66-59 lead with just over four minutes to go. That basket took the air right out Skyline’s sails.

Wong was full of praise for her team’s effort after the game.

“Courtney played great! 23 rebounds in a single game has to be  a record here at City College,” Wong said. “Brit and Jaz have always been a huge contributor to our offense especially in big games.”

This year’s team is determined to bring home a state banner - something that has never happened in the history of women’s basketball here at City College.

“We are all excited about going to Fresno. We reached a goal that we have been working towards since we started back in Oct. 15,” Wong said. “We were 30-plus games away, now we are three games away and we are ready to compete.”

I pose a simple question to President Barack Obama, how many innocent lives are you willing to waste in Pakistan?

During his 2008 Presidential campaign, Obama responded to inquiries about expanding the war in Afghanistan to include attacks across the Pakistani border. He stated, if Osama bin Laden was discovered in Pakistan, American forces wouldn’t hesitate to attack.

CIA drone — unmanned aircraft — attacks have continued since Obama took office, but bin Laden hasn’t been seen. The CIA claims these attacks are killing high-level al-Qaida members, who use Pakistan’s  Federally Administered Tribal Areas as a staging point for launching insurgent attacks into Afghanistan.

While this may be true, the unsanctioned expansion of America’s war in the Middle East to include yet another sovereign country carries a gruesome cost.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many Pakistani civilians have been killed in CIA drone strikes since Obama took office. If the US military’s estimates are accurate, nearly half of those killed are not al-Qaida insurgents. Al-Qaida fighters in the FATA hide amongst the poor, nomadic Pashtun who populate the region.

The Pakistani government voices two legitimate complaints. The first: Pakistan is a sovereign nation that doesn’t need United State’s help to kill its civilians. Secondly, Pakistani officials argue these actions strengthen al-Qaida’s numbers — dead children are a powerful recruiting tool in areas like the FATA, where the population is historically sympathetic to the Taliban.

I’d like to believe my generation has a more global perspective than generations past. This means, I’m less likely to see any difference between a dead American child and a dead Pakistani one. Both are abhorrent; both unacceptable.

It was largely my generation who elected Barack Obama, partially because we hoped he shared our point of view when it came to foreign policy.

It’s an old and tired idea that the president of the United States must be willing to inflict such unjust collateral damage.

Does the office make the man or does the man make the office? My hope for Obama’s presidency was that he could change some of these outdated notions, such as the necessity of civilian deaths overseas to protect my sheltered existence. So far, if the wars in the Middle East are the measurement, we were duped.

As I sit on my reclining couch flipping through the sports channels, I think to myself, “Are we really in a recession?”

If you’re defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, you probably don’t even know how to spell recession. Big Albert is the first ever defensive player in the NFL to sign a contract that could be worth up to $115 million. The Washington Redskins have guaranteed Haynesworth at least $43 million; all for a man who hasn’t played a full season since his rookie year.

Recently, the Niners sent a private jet to pick up free agent quarterback Kurt Warner. They wined and dined him in an attempt to guide him toward the 49ers. Warner said he “heard a voice from God” that told him he should remain in Arizona and two days later re-signed a deal to stay a Cardinal.

The Niners want to implement a power running game, acquiring a quarterback who wants to throw the ball 40 times a game would have made no sense. Thank God.

One player I want the Niners to bring on is wide receiver Terrell Owens. Yeah, that’s right, I said it.

Niners head coach Mike Singletary is a coach who takes no bull and demands focus. He has command of his locker room and I bet he’d be able to get T.O. to put all his energy into football and stop acting like a kid. He has already humbled one loose cannon Vernon Davis.

Can you imagine Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, and Owens on the field all at once? No defensive coordinator in the NFL would look forward to playing against that trio; not on any given Sunday. (As of press time Terrell Owens signed a one year deal with the Buffalo Bills. There goes my fantasy!)

Just as money won’t buy a football championship, not scoring runs in baseball won’t win games. Will the San Francisco Giants have a player who can hit 20 home runs this season? Giants fans: get ready for a third place finish. The Giants should have spent money on Manny Ramirez — even in a recession that would have been a smart gamble.

While I am happy to be making $10 an hour at a coffee shop during our so-called “recession,” your boy Man-Ram, slugger Manny Ramirez, recently accepted a two-year $45 million offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers and actually felt disrespected by it.

Hell, I don’t blame him! I feel underpaid too — I write articles for the Guardsman, pour cups of coffee in the darkest morning hours, and I can still make my editor-in-chief smile on a bad day.

Tell me that’s not worth some millions. Perhaps “recession” is relative.