By Ellen Silk & Doug Ahlgren
News Editor & Staff Writer

From left to right: Newly-elected board of trustees members Milton Marks III, Chris Jackson, Dr. Natalie Berg, and Steve Ngo were officiall sworn in on Jan. 5 at the Wellness Center. JESSICA LUTHI / THE GUARDSMAN

The 2008 board of trustees unanimously approved Dr. Don Griffin’s contract at a Dec. 19, 2008 meeting and confirmed him as chancellor through June 2012, at an initial salary of $287,000 per year according to his employment contract. Griffin has 38 years of service at City College, both as an instructor and administrator. He has been the interim chancellor at City College since March 2008.

“My many years of experience in positions of ever-increasing responsibility at City College of San Francisco have prepared me for this new post,” Griffin said. “I look forward to working with the board of trustees as well as the faculty and staff to continue the college’s legacy of excellence and service to our students and communities.”

Board of Trustee

New City College board of trustees members Steve Ngo and Chris Jackson, along with returning members Dr. Natalie Berg and Milton Marks III, were sworn-in during a ceremony at the Wellness Center on Jan. 5.

All four trustees won their four-year seats after a seven-month election process ending in November 2008. Incumbents Marks and Berg along with former members Rodel Rodis and former City College Police Chief Carl Kohler ran in the nine person, four seat election for the seven member board.  Nearly 200 people watched as Senator Mark Leno swore-in Berg and Ngo. San Francisco Supervisor David Campos and Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson officiated the oaths for Marks and Jackson respectively.

“The Trustees recognize the difficult challenging budgetary times we are experiencing,” said Board President Lawrence Wong.
The Budget Crisis was a major topic of the ceremony. “I am very privileged to serve City College students and the community. I am confident that we will get through this,” Ngo said. She feels, the crisis has to be a number one priority for the college board.

This is Ngo and Jackon’s first time to serve the City College Board of Trustees. However both have experience in other forms of civic government. Ngo has served on other boards including the South East Asian Community Center, CollegeWorks and as a student representative at Hastings College. He is currently an attorney at San Francisco legal firm Minami Tamaki. In his senior year at San Francisco State University, Jackson served as Associated Student President and created Project Connect, which helps K-12 students connect with college . He currently works as a policy analyst for the San Francisco Labor Council.

“This is a great opportunity to bring an under served voice to the halls of government through the board,” said Jackson. During his time on the board he hopes to protect basic skills-and-outreach programs, as well as bring more “green jobs” training and sustainability education to the college.

Thousands of protesters gathered in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza on November 15 to protest the passing of the California ballot initiative Proposition 8. GRAHAM HENDERSON / THE GUARDSMAN

By Lauren Tyler
Staff Writer

Thousands of protesters gathered at San Francisco’s City Hall on Nov. 15 to protest the recent passage of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California.

Several speakers presented their views on Proposition 8 and gave the crowd fuel and strategy about how to possibly overturn the proposition.

California state assemblyman Mark Leno compared the passing of Proposition 8 to the ballot initiative Proposition 22 in 2000, which prevented the recognition of same-sex marriage. Proposition 22 received eighteen more points than Proposition 8 did this in election.

“We picked up eighteen points, they [the supporters of Proposition 8] lost eighteen points. We have the momentum and they are hanging on by a thread,” Leno said.

Leno also questioned the motives of religious groups supporting Proposition 8, saying that the proposition denies citizen of their basic civil rights.

State Sen. Carol Migden told protesters their gathering presents “the fuel, the substance, the momentum … that we will use to propel from this day forward.”

Migden also spoke about the position taken by many religious organizations against same-sex marriages in their churches. “I’ll take it [same-sex marriage] through City Hall. You don’t want us in your church? I don’t go to your church,” Migden said.

From the opposite end of the political spectrum, the Rev. Amos Brown, head of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP and a devout baptist from Mississippi said, “I am heterosexual … though I am a baptist, I am not a bigot!”

He questioned the beliefs of the conservative religious right and the persistence on keeping marriage from same-sex couple when the divorce rate is highest in the bible belt.

Same-sex couples and their children also spoke to the crowd gathered at the Civic Center Plaza.

Join the Impact, the group that organized the protest, coordinated simultaneous protests in 150 U.S. cities, as well as international protests against Proposition 8.