A message from a local bookstore owner -- Eric at Bird & Beckett Books -- about how to save City College. Should we help save CCSF? Yes! The message I’m hearing from those in the struggle is ENROLL! Whether you’re young, not so terribly young, or long in the tooth, fill up those classes this fall! And express your opinions all along the way. How many Bird & Beckett patrons are now or have been CCSF students and teachers? I’m sure any estimate I made would fall far short of the real numbers. They’ve been pouring through the store, hanging flyers and posters, dropping off course schedules. ENROLL! #FALLFORFALL Most of us have a stake in CCSF. If you’ve had blood drawn or xrays taken in this town, a CCSF-trained individual was likely your technician. You may have taken classes there yourself. I’ve lived in SF about 40 years, and took classes at the Phelan campus in my 30s to study typesetting. My downstairs neighbor in the 80s, Gino, was a bassist in a punk band, The Witnesses, had two kids and took aircraft maintenance– he still works at SFO doing that, I do believe. How many people have used the education, training and certification available from CCSF to get a foothold in the working life? How many rely on it to learn English, learn to write, learn to navigate the system, learn to think? How many benefit profoundly from the counseling and student support systems? ENROLL! It’s the very best way for you to show your solidarity and support! I’m going to do it, and you can too. If you have kids, chances are high they took classes there, and chances are 100% they have lots of friends who did. I’ve got three kids and two attended CCSF. One did two years of course work and transferred straight into UCBerkeley where she’s finishing her MA & embarking on her PhD. One did coursework over an eight year period, transferred to SFSU to finish his BA in history, and returned to CCSF to do extensive and valuable work to perfect skills he uses every day as a professional graphic artist. In distinctly different ways, CCSF was invaluable to both of these kids. Both used the experience and resources to get where they’re going, and they’re firmly on the trajectories they set. My mother went to community colleges all over the state throughout my childhood and youth – English classes, birding, art, philosophy. How many SF residents have looked forward to taking classes at CCSF upon retirement to investigate things they’ve always been keen to know more about, to broad en their perspectives, to acquire new skills and hone ones they’ve neglected, to keep in touch with fellow citizens of all ages, races and nationalities, to keep their minds active, to stay engaged in life? ENROLL! Credit courses are $46 per unit; non-credit courses are free. There are other fees & costs, but it’s not going to keep you from buying dinner. Show your support! CCSF isn’t free anymore, but it’s cheap by comparison, and we can agitate to make it cheaper. ENROLL! Come up with your own reasons & rationales, and then do it! Young Joel Alas, just a guy I know from the neighborhood, used to poke his head in the bookshop all the time & told me much, excitedly, about Loren Bell, from whom he’d taken the long-standing “Poetry for the People” class. (I do believe Leslie Simon initiated that course; it’s in the current course schedule taught by L. Muller.) Now, I’ve come to know Loren and his wife Sam and their two lovely, smart, sweet kids. Loren did serious time as a monk, I don’t know what all else. Fascinating guy, loves his students, fills them with fascination for the wonders of thought! What a concept! And Leslie Simon? A brilliant and dedicated scholar and teacher, a poet, a trailblazer in women’s studies. Leslie & Loren have both read some of their work here at the shop. Leslie read here with her daughter on Mother’s Day not long ago... ENROLL! Certainly, we can name as dedicated CCSF teachers past and present we know: writing instructors Louise Nayer, poet and memoirist; Ron Johnson and Brown Miller, poets; the late Marc Dulman, poet and playwright, Ellen Wall, essayist and fiction writer. Also Charles Belbin, Anne Marie Fleming and Priya Kailath in the ESL department; Kate Connell in the library; Dennis Mullen, who teaches accounting; Joe Thorn, philosophy; Abdul Jabbar, literature; Ana Asebedo, art; John Wilk, theatre, Frank Koehler, physics. Not to mention Carlota del Portillo, dean of the Mission Campus until her recent retirement, the one person who made sure that wonderful campus was built, and a solid supporter of Bird & Beckett. ENROLL! Sure I could say more. You likely have something to say. If you like, email me with your thoughts and stories, or to tell me I left you off my list of individuals who I know who have taught there. I’ll make a long list of teachers and students and post it in the store window. But don’t forget to ENROLL! Maybe we should have an evening every few weeks at the store when it’s open house for CCSF folks, just a time to chat and maybe enjoy a little music and a poem or two? Maybe it should be on various weeknights, so it won’t always conflict with that class you’ve signed up for. Just BYOB, ok? And I’d ask you to help put away the chairs, push the cases back in place, take out the trash at the end...just ask my Friday jazz crowd what a concession that is for me! Talk to me if you want to help organize it. ENROLL THIS FALL AT CCSF! #FALLFORFALL Thanks! Society thanks you, too! And remember to be nice to each and every individual you deal with there! They’re under a lot of pressure, and they want to help you. If you’re left on hold or standing in line, don’t you dare take it out on the person who’s there to help you! End of lecture on being nice. (Feel free to take them cookies.)
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 07:30:08 +0000
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