By Greg Zeman
The Guardsman

The 2010 Associated Students elections are approaching. Voting will take place on April 27 and 28 to select AS representatives for each City College campus.

Students at each campus will elect an AS president, vice president and senators. The campuses will collectively chose one student trustee to represent all students on the Board of Trustees.

Students will be able to vote online by contacting ccsfelections@gmail.com or by following “CCSFElections” on Twitter.

Most Ocean campus candidates have joined a slate, defined in the AS Election Handbook as “students running and campaigning together in a group of three or more.” Independent candidates are also running.

The two slates are BLOC and United Coalition for Educational Empowerment, whose platforms both promise radical change in the furtherance of educational access and equity.

Construction work and geothermal well drilling continue on the portion of the reservoir parking where the Performing Arts Center is slated to be built on Dec. 9. ALEX LUTHI / GUARDSMAN

By Arcel Cunanan
Staff Writer

The board of trustees approved the Balboa Reservoir land exchange on Nov. 20, which will allow the construction of the Joint Use Facility and Performing Arts Center on the Ocean campus to continue as scheduled, said James Blomquist, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning / management.

With the construction happening in the reservoir, available parking spaces have been reduced from 2094 to 1700 and a new entrance was added to the north end. To offset the reduction of parking in the reservoir, an additional 340 parking spaces have been created for students and faculty where the old North and South gymnasiums once stood.

The spaces are distributed among Lot “N” and “S”, which are in the same spots as the old North and South gymnasiums. Lot “N” is reserved for faculty and staff parking Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Lot “S” is available for students throughout the week when the campus is open. Blomquist recommends this as an alternative to parking the reservoir.

Even though the construction has rerouted parking and traffic on the Ocean campus, Blomquist said he has not received any complaints regarding the project.

Also under construction are 400 geothermal wells for the buildings new eco-friendly heating and cooling systems. In total, 300 wells have already been dug, with each well being 400 feet deep said Blomquist. Piping for 50 of the wells are complete, and the foundation for the joint use building will be laid this month.

“After all the piping is installed they are networked to an underground vault where they are collected and then routed to the central plant. The central plant is a room in the basement of the Joint Use Facility under construction currently,” said Blomquist. “The water that has circulated through the wells is heated or cooled in the central plant and then routed to the various buildings that the plant will serve.”

City College psychology major Josh Motta drives to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday and parks in the reservoir. Other than the expected pedestrian versus driver battle at the crosswalks, Motta has had no problems with finding a parking spot. As far as construction goes “I haven’t noticed any changes,” he said. “The way the reservoir is set up now is a lot better than how it was before. It is difficult to go when people are crossing the street. I could care less about the center entrance because I like to use the entrance closest to Riordan. The center is where the most traffic happens because of the amount of pedestrians, drivers, and the stoplights.”

City College already has the permits for the Joint Use Facility and the bidding process for the building is underway. Bidding for projects, like the Joint Use facility, are broken up into components of the building. Subcontracts for individual components like steel, concrete, flooring, dry wall and painting are advertised publicly to contractors. The contractors in turn provide an estimated price for one or more of the projects.

Generally, the lowest bid is awarded the contract, said Blomquist.

The next step in construction will be to install traffic signals at the south and north ends of Phelan Avenue. The new traffic signals will improve the flow of traffic and pedestrian safety, according to the department of Facilities Planning / Management.

Once the signals are in place, the center entrance to the reservoir will be closed and more focus will be put on traffic on the north end. The construction of the signals should be completed by the beginning of the Spring 2009 semester, said Blomquist.

Dilophasaurus (left), ichthyosaur (top right) and plesiosaur (bottom right) fossil replicas on display as part of the evolution exhibit on the first floor of the Science Hall. JENNIFER NICHOLS / GUARDSMAN

By Nick Squires
Staff Writer

City College’s “Story of Time and Life” exhibit in Science Hall is nearing completion. The exhibit walks viewers through the evolution of life on Earth, the solar system and the universe.

The process of bringing the comprehensive exhibit to City College began with a donation from the now redesigned Academy of Sciences.

“The academy donated items from their ‘Life Through Time’ exhibit to the City College earth sciences department,” said Katryn Wiese, an earth science instructor and the exhibit’s coordinator. “They began remodeling and needed a place to store it.”

While the donated items were a good start, Wiese felt there were many holes in the story and began planning the walking exhibit nearly four years ago.

“I wanted to make the story as complete as possible, from the Big Bang on. We started with 40 panels of information. We’ve made 40 ourselves so far,” said Wiese.

While spearheading the exhibit’s progress, which often included working on the exhibit alone, Wiese decided to take a one-year sabbatical to finish the project.

“As soon as I had the support of other department chairs, I felt we’d find a way to finish the exhibit. This is a CCSF-produced project, with the help of the department of planning and construction installing the exhibit and the students in the graphics lab designing the panel templates,” said Wiese. “The result is an interactive exhibit, which gives students a sense of time as they walk through the story of evolution.”

Experts from the Exploratorium have offered advice on how to present the project, which will feature dinosaur footprints to guide attendants through the exhibit with multiple panels providing facts and descriptions of the visuals.

“Evolution is just like gravity in the scientific community; no controversy,” said Wiese. “In this exhibit, I hope to illustrate evolution in a way that is fun, and gets students as excited about science as I am. By having these items such as dinosaur skeletons out in the open and not behind glass, we can transform the learning experience and inspire everyone who comes to the Science building.”

The “Story of Time and Life” exhibit will be completed in April, with a grand opening to follow.

Students interested in volunteering to help or to learn more about the exhibit are encouraged to visit the program’s Web site at http://www.ccsf.edu/timelife.

“The exhibit looks really detailed online,” said City College student Erin White. “I’m interested to see it completed in the science building.”

One of the three proposed designs for Robert Howard’s whale sculpture at the base of the steps leading up to Science Hall. Illustration courtesy of Royston, Hanamoto, Alley & Abey

By Roxanne Bequio
Staff Writer

City College and two campus organizations are at odds over a proposal to replace an established student garden with a sculpture, student in the campus organizations said.

The plot of land in dispute is on Ocean campus, located at the base of the steps leading up to Science Hall. The site currently serves as a native plant garden tended by City College students, the Urban Sustainability Alliance and the City College Green Corps, who have said the site was given to them by Chancellor Day in 2006 for their unlimited use.

The garden is also the current proposed site for Robert Howard’s Whale Fountain, a sculpture donated to City College in 2007 and has been in storage behind the Orfalea Family Center ever since its arrival at City College.

“I’m against the current proposed location, ‘current’ being the keyword, because I do like the fountain,” said City College student and Urban Sustainability Alliance President, Kaya McMillen. “It’s a nice fountain, and I’m very glad the Academy of Sciences donated it to us.”

Installation of the fountain would cost about $750,000, but the funds are not readily available.

“We haven’t raised it,” said James Blomquist, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning / management, of the needed funding. “We’re expecting it to come through contributions.”

“I don’t think it’s fair for the students that worked on the garden,” said City College broadcasting student Michael Attaway, 42.

“It takes a lot of money to tear it [the native garden] out, and redo the landscaping. It’s ridiculous,” said Attaway, who feels the funds could be better spent on much needed school equipment.

Blomquist said a final decision on when and where the fountain would be relocated permanently has not been made, since “there is a contingent within the college that would rather have native plants growing there.”

At City College, the biology department and the Center for Habitat Restoration, along with the cooperation of the Buildings and Grounds department, all helped to establish the native garden.

Crima Pogge, an ecology instructor at City College, said her Biology 41L students first came up with a plan to establish a native plant garden on campus in the spring of 2006. Soon after choosing the area surrounding the Benimiano Bufano’s “St. Francis of the Guns” statue as a suitable location, heavy research was done regarding the site’s history, potential academic opportunities, appropriate plants, and administrative barriers that could arise in the process of setting up the garden.

According to the report completed by Pogge, titled “Bio 41L Laboratory Manual Appendix,” each plant underwent a thorough screening process, in which they were examined based on several factors. Plants needed to be indigenous to this bioregion, endangered or rare, pleasing to the senses, sustainable, and attractive to pollinators and birds. For pollination success, a minimum of two plants were chosen for each species.

Full responsibility for the garden does not fall under City College or its hired landscapers, and is instead given to students and volunteers from the Urban Sustainability Alliance and the Green Corps. McMillen said involvement in maintaining the native garden has increased, and anyone interested can come on Thursday afternoons to help maintain the project.

“They shouldn’t sacrifice student’s work. It doesn’t make sense to destroy this, since the students worked so hard and went through all the correct channels. I just don’t want to see this gone,” said McMillen of the project, which took more than 800 student hours over the span of two and a half years.

Blomquist said, “From a design and planning standpoint, the best location for the fountain is where we’re proposing to put it. The natural gardens should be on campus, but there are many locations that are better suited for that little kind of confined location.”

If the fountain is moved to the proposed site, Blomquist said the students involved with the native garden would be able to get a new plot of land for their native garden.

“I’m sure another location can be found,” he said.

By Benjamin Taylor
Editor

Inside the Diego Rivera Theater, the stage is almost bare. There’s a wooden step ladder, some coiled rope, and several old props laying displaced on dusty wooden planks. The theater is empty too, save for three occupied seats, and two figures up on stage working among the bare bones of a living room set: a couch, a coffee table and a window frame looking out on empty seats.

Lee Meriwether’s voice echoes through the theater as she recites her lines, occasionally calling out to director Susan Jackson for cues. She gazes out wistfully through the window frame into the shadow, which in one week’s time will be the opening night audience for City College’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

“It’s really an amazing piece of literature,” said Meriwether, during a break. “It’s about Eugene O’Neill’s family, and he’s so brutally honest about it. Of course, he wrote it when they were all gone. But for him to face those ghosts was really rather amazing at that time.”

It was 2007 when Meriwether and Jackson discovered their mutual admiration for the playwright Eugene O’Neill.

“Lee and I were talking and I told her that I was on the Eugene O’Neill board. She said ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to do ‘A Long Day’s Journey Into Night,’ and I said ‘so have I!’”

Director Susan Jackson first met Meriwether in 1985, when they both starred in a City College production of “The Artful Lodgers,” a play written by Meriwether’s husband Marshal Borden, who also acted in the play.

“We’ve been in contact since then,” Jackson said. “To direct her is just a dream come true. I certainly enjoyed acting with her on stage, but directing her has just been wonderful.”

As one of City College’s most distinguished alumni, Meriwether took theater classes here in 1955. She was chosen to represent the school that year in the Miss San Francisco beauty pageant, which she won. That year she was also crowned Miss California, and then Miss America. She has starred in television series spanning from “Barnaby Jones” to “All My Children,” appeared in dozens of movies including the original “Batman” starring Adam West and she has remained a dedicated stage actress. Meriwether is back where her career began, performing a play that will benefit the Kennedy Student Scholarship. At 73 years old, she shows no signs of slowing down, nor has she forgotten her City College roots.

Over the years, Meriwether has returned to City College several times to star in productions including “Our Town” and “Happy End,” with the proceeds always going to charitable causes. She always welcomes the opportunity to give back to her school, and to bring attention to college theater, which she says is still alive and well, “and thank heaven for it.”

In this production, Meriwether plays the role of Mary Tyrone, a morphine addicted wife and mother of the dysfunctional Tyrone family.

“It’s one of the great roles in theatrical history really, and there aren’t that many roles out there for women of age,” Meriwether said. “It’s challenging, the magnitude of it. We catch her later on in life, when she’s recovered from a morphine addiction, and all of a sudden it starts over again.”

She speaks with a slow, wise tone that comes with a lifetime’s experience while choosing her words carefully and making sure to convey the deepest meaning with the simplest terms. When on stage, her movements are graceful, and even from the back row her appearance is immediately striking.

Meriwether said from the time she was in the fourth grade, all she ever wanted to do was act.

“It’s unusual that I got to fulfill that dream,” said Meriwether, who first performed on the stage when she was in grammar school, singing “Have Yourself a Merry Christmas,” in a school production of “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

After attending George Washington High School, where she acted in several plays, Meriwether enrolled in City College to study theater arts and English. She was living on Portola Drive at the time with her parents and primarily chose the school because it was conveniently located.

“The theater, when I went here, was very small. It was in the main building down in the basement,” Meriwether said. “It used to be the old ROTC shooting range, so it was very long and narrow.”

She looks up with a soft smile and a far away look as she thinks back.

“We were performing this play, and our backs were right up against the wall, but we needed to have some space behind us. How we had the gumption back then to do this I don’t know,” she said with a laugh. “But I remember one day that I noticed something sparkling shiny, like metal in the wall behind us.”

When the wall behind them was demolished, they found that a gap between two buildings had been filled with thick steel train tracks to prevent bullets from going through into the classroom next door. “The shining metal that I had seen was a bullet,” said Meriwether. “There were hundreds of flattened bullets stuck into the metal.”

One year of City College was all Meriwether took. That year she was chosen to represent the school in the Miss San Francisco pageant.

“I had such a good time, because we didn’t have this theater, we had our little rifle range, and to make that work, to put on plays that worked in that space was fun,” Meriwether said of her year at City College. “And we did it and they worked out pretty darned good. We had a lot of fun.”

“Then it was Miss California, and then Miss America. From there I went right in to television in New York with the today show.”

Meriwether was The Today Show’s first ever female editor, and according to her biography the position enabled her to use her scholarships from the pageants to study dance, singing and acting with some of the top coaches in New York. As a result, she soon landed her first television role on “The Philco Television Playhouse,” with Mary Astor. From there she went on to star in her first motion picture, “The 4-D Man,” with Robert Lansing, and made her first professional stage appearance in “Hateful of Rain.” However, Meriwether is probably most well-known for her portrayal of “Betty” in the CBS series, “Barnaby Jones,” a role she played for eight years and earned her nominations for the Golden Globe and the Emmy awards.

Though it was brief, Lee looks back on her time at City College fondly, reminiscing of when she acted in productions such as “Kind Lady,” which she counts among her favorite roles.
“It was a role where I played a demented woman and she was just off her rocker. I had about six lines, and they were all ‘Yes Henry, yes Henry, yes Henry,’ that’s all she said. She was a swindler’s gal, but she was demented, so he just used her. It was a wild play.”

Today, Meriwether is based in Los Angeles and flies out to New York periodically for appearances on “All my Children.” She recently co-starred with Ed Harris, playing his drunken, cigarette-smoking mother in a new movie called “Touching Home,” which has yet to be released and last year played the part of a secretary in the movie “The Ultimate Gift,” with James Garner.

According to Susan Jackson, Meriwether returns to City College about every eight or nine years.

“I’m hoping to encourage some other alumni to come back and appear here,” Meriwether said. “Ted Lange and I wanted to do ‘Love Letters,’ and we may well do it within the next two years. I talked to him a while ago and he said ‘Oh yeah, lets do it!’”

Jackson says that she is happy to give students the opportunity to work with someone of Lee’s caliber and experience, and also a chance to showcase O’Neill’s work.

“Lee has come to my classes and talked at my classes. She’s a part of the college community, truly,” Jackson said.

Meriwether says that she is having a great time working on the play.

“I’m loving it,” Meriwether said. “It’s been quite a moving experience.”

Lee Meriwether starred in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night”, directed by theater arts instructor Susan Jackson. Meriwether is seen here with Patrick Barresi in rehearsal on Nov. 12. ANNE-MARIE STARK / GUARDSMAN

By Benjamin Taylor
Editor

Starring distinguished City College alumna Lee Meriwether, the production of Eugene O’Neill’s “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night” played to a crowded Diego Rivera Theater at the opening night gala performance Nov. 13.

In the packed Diego Rivera foyer, guests, students and faculty came elegantly dressed and enjoyed appetizers and wine. Ticket sales from the gala went to benefit the Kennedy Center Student Scholarship and the event was supported by the horticulture and the hospitality departments.

The play is about O’Neill’s dysfunctional family and is a heart-wrenching account of one day in the life of the Tyrone family, who are dealing with a mother who is a recovering morphine addict and a son who may have to be sent to an infirmary due to consumption.
“My father took me to see [O’Neill’s play] ‘Morning Becomes Electric’ with Jane Alexander when I was 18 and I’ll never forget it,” said director Susan Jackson. “I’ve always wanted to do ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night.’”

Meriwether plays the haunting role of Mary Tyrone, who goes from being a recovering addict to relapsing into a full-blown addiction and hysteria with harrowing realism.

“She’s worked very hard on her hands and on her face,” Jackson said. “We worked on a moment yesterday where we tried to combine some ideas and she showed me, and it was right on. She really has a command of her body and her voice.”

With a cast of just six actors, Jackson said the play presented a great opportunity for students to work with a professional actor.

“I’m really happy with the way things have turned out,” Jackson said before the performance. “The cast and the crew have found the rhythm of the piece, which is important. I think they’re ready for an audience.”

And the audience was ready for them, too. The cast was greeted with a standing ovation at the end of the play, and in a surprise gesture Meriwether was presented with a bouquet of flowers.

“I am loving it,” said Meriwether about performing in the play. “I’m enjoying working on it. It’s an extremely difficult play, but it’s all coming together. We’ve got wonderful people playing the roles. They’ve all been in theater in and around the city. It’s been quite a moving experience.”

Nick Squires
Staff Writer

The proposal for City College’s new soccer field on Ocean Campus is nearing completion, pending the presentation of the field’s amended plan that takes into consideration the concerns of a local community group.

The field, approved four years ago by the board of trustees in the college’s Master Plan, will be located at the northeast corner of the Ocean campus, east of Batmale Hall.

“This is a big step forward from what we’ve had,” said Men’s Soccer Head Coach Adam Lucarelli. “The planning commission has been helpful in listening to our concerns, and tells us this will be a permanent fixture. The rest of the team and I are excited to not take vans to three different places to practice.”

The field’s proposal was met with questions from the local Sunnyside Neighborhood Association.

“Our main concerns are added traffic, parking, and noise,” SNA member Chris Coghlan said. “We’re looking for limited hours of operation: Monday through Friday for daytime use, Saturday mornings and closed Sunday.”

At almost 8,800 square yards, the proposed field will be four-fifths the size of the old soccer field, which was removed when the Ocean campus Community Health and Wellness Center was built.

“The practice field will be large enough to play an official NCAA soccer game, and accommodate City College students,” said James Blomquist, associate vice chancellor of facilities planning / management.

According to Interim Chancellor Dr. Don Griffin, the new field will not be open to the public. As part of the agreement with the SNA, the field will not be used by other soccer leagues, nor will bleachers or lights be installed. The proposal also includes a new ADA compliant twelve-foot walkway for pedestrian traffic, while emergency vehicles will retain their Ocean and Havelock points of entry.

“We’ve made major changes in the original plan after meeting with the SNA, Facilities Review Committee and City College community,” said Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration Peter Goldstein. “The proposal will not remove the hillside; it will protect the trees currently planted and include 100 additional trees to be planted.”

Charlie McCarthy plays tenor sax in a duet with guitarist Lenny Carlson at the free faculty music performance on Halloween day. JENNIFER NICHOLS / GUARDSMAN

By Roxanne Bequio
Staff Writer

On Halloween, City College’s music department performed a free concert in the Creative Arts Building. Billed as “More Than Talking Heads”, the concert featured a diverse selection of music, with faculty members playing classical, jazz, opera and songs of the Renaissance to a crowded room of students and faculty.

The mood of the concert was set when music teacher Larry Ferrara dashed down a side aisle to the front of the room wearing a long, black wig, later claiming to be “a cross between Alice Cooper and Howard Stern.”

“I’ve performed quite a bit before but I was a little bit nervous because I had this costume on. I wanted to be in the Halloween spirit,” Ferrara said. “I think the faculty did great. We have a lot of talent in the department.”
With Ferrara on guitar, music teacher Helen Dilworth lent her powerful voice for “Come Again”, a beautiful melancholic love song arranged by Renaissance composer John Dowland. Ferrara then performed Dowland’s “Fantasia” on his guitar, a light tune of gentle lulling.

“When we started this, it was just a matter of the staff wanting to do something special for their students, so they could see that staff members just don’t talk, but also have a lot of skills to help students,” Dilworth said.

Dilworth explained it was difficult to decide on a day for the event due to the conflicting schedules of the faculty, but that everyone could agree on Halloween as an appropriate date.

One highlight of the concert was when violinist Anthony Blea performed a stirring solo rendition of Bedrich Smetana’s energetic and quick paced “Aus der Heimat,” or “From my Homeland,” to roaring applause.

Other performances included Michael Shahani accompanied by Les McWilliams on piano, for Erich Korngold’s “Pierrot’s Tanzlied,” which is a gloomy piece about yearning and reminiscing over the past, and Harry Bernstein on flute, with William Severson on piano for “Freylach No. 8,” an upbeat song typically heard at Yiddish weddings.

In an unforgettable rendition of Gioachino Rossini’s “Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti” or “Funny Duet of Two Cats,” music teachers Mary Argenti and Dilworth sang along with Music Department Chair Madeline Mueller on the piano. All three donned cat ears for the piece, which is comprised only of the word “meow”. Their performance was a refreshing and hilarious break from the more serious songs performed, and drew plenty of laughs. Argenti and Dilworth took on the roles of two stubborn cats hissing and clawing at each other, and ended without a cat fight.

The music department also paid tribute to retired faculty member Neyde Azevedo, who passed away over the summer. Mueller played Astor Piazzolla’s “Flora’s Game,” a sweetly sad song which evoked somber emotions and memories of Azevedo.

“One of my favorites was definitely ‘Dulce Maria’ when Charlie McCarthy played on sax. That was amazing,” said City College student Yarilis Vázquez Guzmán, who watched the concert because of her love of music. Accompanied by Lenny Carlson on guitar, McCarthy performed the arrangement, which he composed for his wife.

The concert ended with the audience and performers coming together to do “a Pumpkin Carol.” The words “Dress Yourself So You Look Scary” replaced the traditional words of the festive tune “Deck the Halls.” Fa la la la la.

“I don’t know of any other music department where the faculty can get up and be just so professional, so wonderful, so varied! Really, they’re special. We had a lot of fun,” Mueller said.

At right are (left to right) Interim Chancellor Dr. Don Q. Griffin, Trustee Milton Marks, Board Vice President Dr. Natalie Berg, Board President Lawrence Wong Natalie Orfalea who with her husband Paul (not pictured) are providing operational funding for the Center, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Commissioner Hydra Mendoza Trustee John Rizzo and Trustee Rodel E. Rodis. ALEX LUTHI / GUARDSMAN

By Natalie Coreas
Staff Writer

Despite rainy weather, City College’s grand opening for the Ocean campus’ Orfalea Family Center was held on Oct. 30, following a change of venue to the Diego Rivera Theatre.

“I believe that most people in need of a preschool are on the city level. This is a typical environment these children would not get. All major studies indicate that from birth through age five are the most important years in a child’s life. We wanted to provide that access here to those children at City College,” said Natalie Orfalea of the Orfalea Family Foundations, which made a total of $8 million in donations over the past 7 years to the college. The donations are used to support the center’s operational budget, according to the Nov. 3, 2008 issue of City Currents.

About a hundred friends, faculty, students and children holding multi-colored balloons were in the audience as board of trustees president Lawrence Wong began the inauguration of the new center, looking to the audience and saying, “we are planting seeds for us to grow here. This quality childcare center continues to be the largest and most comprehensive childcare training center in San Francisco, enrolling an average of 4000 City College students yearly and training 75 percent of the childcare providers in San Francisco.”

The new center, which opened in the Spring of 2008, provides toddlers and preschool children with learning areas include a 7000 square foot outdoor play area, arts and crafts, a dramatic play area, a block area, a reading area with books of all kinds such as “Say Hola to Spanish,” “Let’s Count” and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. All areas are “sensory based learning environments that encourage developing small and gross motor skills,” according to City College’s fact sheet for the center.

Special guests like Congresswoman Jackie Speier, City College’s Senior Project Manager for the center Demetri Gonzalez and District 11 Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval were present as the mayor’s education advisor Hydra Mendoza presented a certificate of honor on behalf of Mayor Gavin Newsom to the Orfalea foundation for their generosity. Speier’s speech included a brief history of the Orfalea family and the start of Kinko’s, a company that offered copy services and office supplies and was originally founded by Paul Orfalea to benefit college students with products and services they needed at a more affordable price.

“We will be forever be in the deepest gratitude for the level of support they provided for us,” said Kathleen White, the department chair of the Child Development and Family studies department, thanking the Orfalea Foundation.

After conclusion of the ceremony in the Diego Rivera Theatre, lion dancers along with drummers from Leung’s White Crane Lion and Dragon Association lead the way to the front of the new center for the ribbon cutting for the center. Afterward, guests made their way through exploring the new center.

Also, a new baby room and lactating room, were unveiled at the opening. The lactating room, titled “Effie’s Room” after Effie Kuriloff, an early teacher who taught non credit courses at early San Francisco Community College Child Development / Family Studies Department from 1977 to 2004.

“The new center has made a big difference in the developmental needs for families trying to raise kids with healthy and strong minds,” said Interim Chancellor Dr. Don Q. Griffin.

Each of the buildings in the center have “green” living rooftops, built to make the buildings more sustainable.

The center includes children-size toilets and hand washing areas. In addition to the children areas, there are also separate observation rooms which allow child development and family studies students and teachers to view the children interacting without disrupting the learning environment.

“I feel really comfortable leaving my son in the morning. He adapted very well to the program. It is up to him what he chooses to do: there are table activities, water activities, and painting. I don’t think the location matters. It’s not the structure, it’s the people that work there that make it a great environment,” said Brenda Wemiz, parent of a 4-year-old child.

Student hit, injured by vehicle
A female City College student was struck by a four door Sedan in front of the Arts Extension on Cloud Circle around 10 a.m. on Nov. 4, according to campus police. According to campus police, the victim sustained no major injuries, but did complain of pain to her leg. She was was transported to SF General Hospital for further evaluation. The driver of the other vehicle, who was also a City College student, was cited and his vehicle was towed because he was allegedly driving without a license.

Sex acts reported in Cloud Hall
Campus police reported two individuals were alledgedly performing sexual activities in a men’s bathroom stall on the second floor of Cloud Hall on Oct. 22. Officers were dispatched after a student walked into the bathroom around 4 p.m. and saw a male student peeping over a stall at two males, both repeat offenders, allegedly performing sexual acts. A citizen’s arrest was made for one of the violators, while another was just scolded. Narcotics and paraphernalia were allegedly found on the individual arrested; according to the officers, the arrested individual also allegedly smelled of alcohol and was intoxicated.

Student strikes faculty member
According to campus police, a faculty member was struck on the head in Conlan Hall by a student who claimed she was hearing voices in her head on Oct. 16. The faculty member sustained minor injuries and required no further medical attention. The student was transported to SF General and detained for a 72 hour psychological evaluation.

Bicycle rack damaged in crash
A student driving through Cloud Circle on Oct. 16 crashed of his car near Ram Plaza, damaging a bike rack. Officer Christian Smith responded to the scene at about 8 a.m., finding there were no injuries to report, excluding the damage to the bike rack. The rack was hit when the student lost control of the vehicle by allegedly hitting the wrong pedal at the wrong time, according to campus police.