By Kristan Korns
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A rise in crime on and around the City College Ocean campus area, including recent sexual assaults and multiple armed robberies, has the local community on alert.

“Criminals find something that works and stick to it,” Officer Christian Smith of the City College Police Department said. “They are targeting areas around City College, San Francisco State and Balboa BART.”

Rod Santos, dean of public safety and acting police chief for City College, believes the rise in crime may be connected to the economic downturn in the surrounding community, with many people in San Francisco affected by the country’s rising unemployment rate.

“What happens here reflects what’s happening around us in the city. People are losing jobs,” Santos said. “Based on SFPD reports, [crimes] are happening on all sides of the campus. It’s worse at Ocean campus, just because of the sheer number of students here.”

Santos categorized most of the increased activity as “crimes of opportunity” and stressed the importance of educating students to protect themselves by being aware of their surroundings.

“You could make the assumption that it all happens at sundown but it’s also happening in the daylight,” he said.

Traveling in groups after dark, and taking precautions such as hiding the distinctive white iPod earbuds when traveling to and from Balboa BART, are good ways to reduce the chances of becoming a victim, Santos advised.

“Crime is everywhere in the city. [It] shows how big the school is, and we don’t have the type of security that other large schools, or even malls have,” said Sharlene Dillon, dance and communications major at City College.

“We have 100,000 students,” Santos said, “We’re like a small city. But here on a college campus we’re most definitely safer than out on the city streets.”

To add to the strength of the police department, three new officers were welcomed to City College Friday April 3, bringing the total to 28 officers for all City College campuses.

Officers Alfred Chang, Zaid Hadi, and Tiffany Green, took their oaths in front of the Science Building. All three of the new officers are joining the San Francisco City College Police Department from other Bay Area police departments.

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.