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

Be sure to follow our live coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on Prop. 8. There will be events happening all over the country for Prop. 8. The staff will be Twittering live from San Francisco’s Civic Center starting at 9 a.m. Be sure to check back often for updates.

If you know of any places around the city where people can participate in Prop. 8 event let us know by sending us an e-mail via our contact us page.

Follow The Guardsman on Twitter via sfbreakingnews for any breaking news in San Francisco, or at City College.

By Alex Luthi
ONLINE EDITOR

In response to possible violations of a federal law requiring regular crime reporting, the San Francisco Community College District Police Department has created a crime log and is beginning to train officers to update the log, according to department personnel.

Rod Santos, acting dean of student affairs and public safety, said three officers and one sergeant are being trained to maintain and update the crime log, supplementing the single officer now tasked with the job. The log is posted on the SFCCDPD’s section of City College’s Web site.

The officers and sergeant will be part of a team Santos said will ensure the college is complying with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, a portion of federal law requiring all educational institutions receiving federal funding to regularly publish information on campus crime.

The college’s revamped crime log, introduced in April, is currently maintained by SFCCDPD officer Christian Smith. The crime log format was changed specifically to comply with the Clery Act, which mandates the log must be updated within two business days of any crime reported to the SFCCDPD.

The crime log will contain a minimum of the date, type, location and current disposition of each incident reported to the SFCCDPD.

Alexandra Fieber, a 20-year-old interior design major at city college said she is very concerned about crimes on and around campus and hopes the college will put out more information about campus crime.

“I feel I can be better prepared for what could happen on campus if I know what to expect,” Fieber said.

In addition to the new crime log, Santos said SFCCDPD officers have mentioned other colleges and universities use specialized software to help streamline and simplify Clery Act compliance, as well as reduce the amount of time and paperwork officers must do during their shifts.

Santos said the current procedure to update the crime log is done manually by Smith. Any applicable incident reports must be complied by hand, and then entered one by one into the log, which Santos said can take up a considerable amount of an officer’s shift at the department.

If a request is made for crime log records not included in the crime log, which include incidents older than 60 days, an officer must again go through old reports and include each incident manually. To be in compliance with the Clery Act, a college must make any portion of the log older than 60 days available within two business days from date the request is made.

Due to these concerns, Santos said he has requested SFCCDPD officers Smith and Jose Fiscal to recommend a system the college could purchase. Once the officers pass their recommendation onto his office, Santos said the process to purchase the officer’s recommendation will begin “immediately.”

Fiscal said the department is looking into different options for automating the SFCCDPD’s records system, but no official recommendations have been made yet.

Currently, the SFCCDPD uses a report writing system that Fiscal said he created, utilizing a word processing template with form fills. The template allows officers to first type up a report and print it out for approval by a sergeant. Before this system was put in place in 2005, Fiscal said the department was handwriting each report on San Francisco Police Department report forms.

“[The system] works for now, but it’s a big Band-Aid for us being behind on technology,” Fiscal said. “The truth of the matter is we do need to be up-to-date with what other police agencies in the state are using.”

According to Smith, other police departments began making the move to using reporting writing software in the ’90s.

If purchased, Fiscal said “[the software] will be report writing software. It could basically be an all-in-one software, similar to what a larger agency would use.”

The software the department is considering could potentially come with the ability to publish incidents reports automatically, specifically to comply with the Clery Act. The same software could also display reported incidents on a map, allowing a viewer to see how crimes are related geographically.

The cost of the software is also a factor, according to Fiscal and Carlos Gaytan, a supervising sergeant at Ocean campus.

“Little by little we are making progress. It’s going to take a while and everything comes down to money,” Gaytan said.

Estimates for the cost of purchasing a entire system could vary widely, from $20-30 per month per officer using the system to a $50,000-$60,000 one-time fee to setup and configure the software for City College.

Regardless of which system is purchased, Santos said City College’s Information Technology department may assist with the installation and configuration of the new system.

“The new system could be installed as early as May, once things calm down after finals are over,” Santos said. “It’s not a matter of which software we end up using, it is critical that we comply with the Clery Act.”

By Alex Emslie
STAFF WRITER

A statewide special election aimed at fixing California’s broken budget will be held May 19. Several state programs, including funding for kindergarten through community college institutions, will be directly affected by the outcome of this special election.

Proposition 1A

The California Legislature and the governor passed an emergency tax increase package in February to balance the budgets for the fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Three separate taxes were increased in the measure.

Sales taxes were raised by one percent — from eight cents on the dollar to nine. Vehicle licensing fees were raised from 0.65 percent of the vehicle’s value to 1.15 percent. Both of these tax increases will remain in effect through the 2011 fiscal year, regardless of whether Proposition 1A passes.

Personal income taxes were also raised as part of the emergency tax measure by 0.25 percent   for all income brackets. The amount of personal income taxes Californians are obligated to pay ranges from one to 10.3 percent depending on income. Those in higher income brackets paying a higher percentage. This measure affects the 2009 and 2010 income tax returns.

Proposition 1A would extend the measure through 2013, generating an estimated $16 billion for the state’s general fund, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Jenifer Warren of The LA Times described the LAO as “a snoop paid by the Legislature to prowl the massive state budget and bureaucracy in search of waste, bad ideas, and dirty tricks.”

The measure would also require more money to be funneled into California’s Budget Stabilization — or “rainy day” — Fund. According to the language of Proposition 58, the California Balanced Budget Act, the fund can be raided by the governor or legislators for any purpose through the passage of law.

Proposition 1A would also limit the governor’s ability to cancel the transfer of money into the fund, which happened this year due to the budget deficit.

Proposition 1B

California voters passed Proposition 98 in 1988, mandating a minimum level of funding for K-14. The state uses one of three tests to determine the minimum amount paid to schools each year. If the state utilizes Test 3, which provides less money to schools, it is required to make up the difference in following years in the form of “maintenance payments.”

Proposition 1B would release $9.3 billion from the BSF over five or six years to close the funding gap that has accumulated between the amount of money required by Proposition 98 and the amount actually given to K-14 schools.

“Prop. 1B corrects the attempted unlawful manipulation of the state’s minimum school funding law and repays $9.3 billion that is owed to education,” according to the California Teachers Association’s endorsement of the measure.

Proposition 1A must pass in order for 1B to have any effect, but 1A does not require passage of 1B. The LA times endorses all ballot provisions except for 1B because it is an example of “ballot-box budgeting” that doesn’t add money to the general fund.

Proposition 1C

Current law dictates California Lottery profits go directly to educational institutions including K-14 as well as CSU and UC colleges. Proposition 1C would allow the state to borrow $5 billion in future lottery profits in order to balance the budget. The ballot measure dictates that Proposition 98 be expanded to make up for the loss of educational funding incurred through the passage of Proposition 1C.

Proposition 1D

In 1998 voters passed Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Act, allocating a “sin tax” of fifty cent increase per pack of cigarettes to First 5 California, a commission supporting early childhood education. The commission uses 20 percent of these funds to implement school readiness, health care access and programs for new parents.

The remaining 80 percent is distributed to 58 County Commissions throughout the state whose programs include family functioning, child development, and child health. Proposition 1D would reallocate a significant portion of the fifty cent cigarette tax directly into the state general fund, cutting $608 million from early child development programs in the 2009 - 10 fiscal year and $268 million in following years until 2014.

Proposition 1E

Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act, was passed in November 2004. Children and adults lacking private health insurance that covers mental illness can benefit from services under Proposition 63.

Under the act, five major programs are financially supported by a one percent personal income tax surcharge required from California residents earning $1 million or more taxable income. Revenues have varied annually from $900 million to $1.5 billion, according to the LAO.

The Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment program is a federally mandated mental health initiative which is only partially funded by the federal government. Proposition 1E would reallocate $226.7 million from the Proposition 63 fund to the EPSDT fund. This would offset costs that would otherwise be borne by the general fund, thus generating a savings of approximately $250 million for the state.

However, Proposition 1E would make less money available for mental health programs, which could cause the state to incur future fiscal problems due to increased homelessness and higher prison populations.

Proposition 1F

Legislators in California currently make approximately $116,000 per year, the governor makes $212,000. Most elected officials’ salaries are set by the California Citizens Compensation Commission, a board of seven members appointed by the governor. Proposition 1F would restrict the commission from raising salaries in projected deficit years. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows a compelling majority in favor of Proposition 1F — 81 percent.

By Alex Luthi
ONLINE EDITOR

According to official Associated Students Ocean campus election results released Friday morning, Joshua Nielsen and Ryan Vanderpol were elected to the posts of student trustee and AS president, respectively.

The results were first released via text message by a member of City College’s AS to Rod Santos, acting dean of student affairs and public safety and Diana Munoz-Villanueva, the current student trustee for City College’s board of trustees.

Munoz-Villanueva announced the results of the race for student trustee during the Thursday meeting of City College’s board of trustees at the John Adams campus to the standing room only crowd attending the meeting.

The official results were released to The Guardman by City College student Jimmy Young, an AS senator candidate who ran on the O.S. slate. The results were verified by Pamela Ward, election commissioner, Philip Conklin, assistant elections commissioner and Skip Fotch, associate dean of student activities.

Election Results from Ocean Campus

Vote counts for a candidate appear after the candidate’s name.

Winners of each race are denoted in bold.

District-wide election results:

Proposition S

Proposition S Approved

Yes 467
No 207

Student Trustee Candidates Votes

Joshua Nielsen 846
Bivett Bracket 197
Aito Compton 157

Ocean campus vote tallies:

AS Ocean President

Ryan Vanderpol 277
Alecia Dominguez 265
Paolo Marquez 172
Olivia Franco 118
Jerry Scripter 54

AS Ocean Senators Votes

Nicole Blas 382
Yoowi Jang 281
Marielle Bautista 280
Pedro Alforque 357
Keyla Medonza 325
Laura Medina 311
Moose Adewunmi 308
Choco (Vinci-Paolo) Vilbar 274
Daniel Mancia 266
Eloy Najera 262
Diamond Dave Whitaker 262
Zenryo Trenholm 260
Mei Xuan 257
Rheana Rios 255
Faafetai Tupua 255
Wen S. Li 240
Johnny Lee 239
Raymond Tan 238
Jimmy Young 232
Ashley Brown 227
Christopher Gomora 223
Stephanie Nuttman 217
Joshua Bohar 192
Jacob Anderson 183
Barbara Jefferson 188
Vincent Finkowski 185
Josh Terry 160
William McSwine 152
Tayana Drevaleva 150
Micheál McLoughlin 150

Source: AS Elections

For updates on CIty College’s Associated Students election results, check back with The Guardsman or follow our election twitter feed @ccsfelection.

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.

By Alex Emslie
STAFF WRITER

City College students will have the opportunity to vote for 15 senators and one president of the Associated Student Council at the end of April. Members of the elections commission are working ardently to increase voter turnout this year.

With about 60,000 students attending classes at Ocean campus, the 2008 - 09 council was elected by only 0.34 percent of the student body — only 204 votes were cast in last year’s elections.  ASC Elections Commissioner Pamela Ward said, “Honestly, I’m hoping to get at least 1,000 students to vote in this election.”

Polls will be open April 28 and 29 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Polling stations will be located at Ram Plaza, outside Batmale Hall and between the Science Building and Cloud Hall.

“Most of us come here, we go to class, we go to work, and then we go home,” said student trustee Diana Muñoz-Villanueva , who will be leaving the council after this semester, about the lack of voter participation. “Most students don’t really hang out [on campus]. So, how do we get the information out to those students? That’s been a big challenge.”

Candidates for the office of student trustee, who represents students at City College board of trustee meetings, will also be on the ballot. The student trustee is not a member of any campus ASC, however, and students attending any City College campus can vote for that position.

Ward attributed last year’s abysmal voter participation and mostly uncontested field of candidates to a lack of understanding of the ASC’s representation of students.

“The AS council, in my opinion, is a group of concerned students who want to help. They want to make things better for the students attending classes here,” Ward said. “They want to provide the support a lot of students need, either through financial help or other programs. The programs that the AS council supports and funds include the HARTS program, Bookloan, most of the resource centers on campus, and they organized the whole March in march. So they’re out there looking out for student interests.”

“I’m pretty happy with the results of the candidates that we have,” she said. “It’s a huge increase — 5 presidents and 32 senators. Four of those presidents aren’t going to make it. About half of the senators aren’t going to make it. We’ve got a real election going.”

Groups of students who decide to run with a shared mission statement can form a slate, which may be confusing to voters. Members of slates are still elected individually, but they share the workload of campaigning along with an ideology. Three slates are running in the upcoming Ocean campus elections: Voice, O.S. and United Students For Change. All of the slate and independent mission statements will be in a voter guide which is tentatively scheduled for publication by Friday, March 27.

Once elected, presidents are awarded a $9,000 service scholarship. Vice presidents, who are appointed by the ASC from the pool of senators, are each awarded $6,480. Uncontested elections like last year’s make these scholarships easy to obtain, according to Ward.

The ASC operated with a budget of approximately $400,000 last year, some of which comes from the optional five dollar student activity fee payable upon registration each semester. Student trustee Muñoz emphasized that voting in the ASC elections is one way students can influence how that money is spent. She said, “Elect people who really envision what you envision for City College.”

By Jessica Luthi
EDITOR IN CHIEF

With the addition of the new Google student e-mail feature, students may have noticed a new change on their WebStars accounts. Currently City College e-mail addresses are not available to all students.

Previously, e-mail addresses were assigned to students only at the request of an instructor. But as of June 2009, all credit students will have access to a City College e-mail address for life, said Doug Re, director of Information Technology Services. He hopes that by fall 2009 every student, including non-credit students, will have access to such an e-mail address. Faculty and staff will also have the option of getting new e-mail, while keeping their current e-mail addresses.

About 2,000 e-mail addresses have already been created as part of a pilot project in January. “They [students] were pretty much picked out of the multimedia department,” Re said. “We have a good working relationship with that department chair and their faculty.”

The new e-mail accounts will be hosted through Google Apps Education Edition, which is a package of applications that include e-mail, word processing and chat, at no cost to City College. Re is hoping all accounts will include additional Google add-ons’ including Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Talk by Fall 2009 semester. Such add-ons are contingent on meetings with key faculty members from Shared Governance Committees, said Re.

E-mail addresses will consist of students’  first initial and the first seven letters of the last name. In case of duplications, a number will be attached to the name. For example, if a student’s name is Betty Peppersmith and another student’s name is Billy Pepperstone, Betty’s e-mail address would be bpeppers@ccsf.edu and Billy’s would be bpepper1@ccsf.edu.

Since October 2008, City College has been working on getting student e-mail accounts. The initial need for such accounts was asserted by the Board of Trustees. “The Board of Trustees have asked us several times over the last year, year and a half, when students would receive student e-mails,” Re said.

“I think it [Google mail] is a very good thing,” said Mamie Hou, dean of the Education Technology Office. “It will allow students to do collaborative work with students and instructors through Google Docs and  give people more tech tools.”

“It’s convenient for new students to connect with other students,” said fire science major, Allan Frias, 22, of the new e-mail system. “ But I probably won’t use the e-mail much because I have two already.”

By Graham Henderson
MANAGING EDITOR

The $5 student activities fee, which is paid by about 60 percent of students, is vital to keeping the Associated Student Council and programs for students funded.

The ASC uses the fee to help fund programs including the Bookloan Program, the Family Resource Center and the Student Health Center, among others. Some of the revenue generated is used to support the Inter-Club Council, as well as to pay students on the council their monthly stipend, according to Josh Nielson, president of the ASC.

“We really want people to pay the fee so programs receive funding,” Nielson said. “I understand that times are tough because we’re in a recession right now, but I would plead for them to pay the fee.”

Paying the fee is optional. Students need to specifically un-check the box to avoid paying.

Skip Fotch, associate dean of student activities, estimates between 50 and 60 percent of students elect to pay the fee. “For $5, a student gets a heck of a lot of activities,” he said. “The interesting part is that if more people pay it, we’d have more of these programs.”

City College’s fee is one of the lowest statewide. Similarly sized schools charge up to $10. According to Fotch, if the school were to charge any more, it would be doing a disservice to the students.

The fee, which amounts to around $200,000 annually, is distributed across all City College Campuses. It is used to fund the students councils on the satellite campuses, according to Nielson.

“The college does not get any of the money,” said Peter Goldstein, vice chancellor of finance and administration. All of the money is distributed by the AS.

“I paid it because I got the rest of my fees waived,” said mathematics major Ruth LeBeau. “I’m not really sure what it’s for though. It [the fee] is nominal.”