Newsmakers for February 5, 2001
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February 5, 2001

Dot-community service learning Election emotion Media Macs Mission statement on gentrification A few good men
Judaism books find new home Note-for-note education ID is key to job search Bridging the distance for Braille


Dot-community service learning

"There's this notion that the dot-com only cares about making money," said Craig Abaya, coordinator of the College of Extended Learning's Web Design Intensive program, in the Nov. 26, 2000, issue of the San Francisco Examiner. Dispelling this common notion, students in the 21-week certificate program create comprehensive Web sites-all at no cost-for local nonprofit organizations as their final project. The project has assisted nine organizations that otherwise would not have had the resour ces to create such sites. "The smaller, more needy agencies have a lot to deal with, including competing for space to house their operations," Abaya said. "These Web sites really give them a voice."

Election emotion

On Dec. 6, 2000, while the nation was still unsure who would become the next U.S. president, Mercury News columnist Sue Hutchison wrote of the public's high interest yet low emotion surrounding the election's ambiguous results. As a primary example, she cited SFSU Political Science Professor David Tabb's American Politics class, in which students were constantly discussing the election. "I've never had an occasion when the topics of the day dovetailed so closely with the topics of the clas s," he said. "People are sticking around to see what happens and ask all the 'what ifs?'" On the other hand, Tabb said he had not seen "any particular feelings of outrage" among his students. "I don't think these students believe this election is being hijacked. " A sense of inevitability is setting in," he said.

Media Macs

The October 2000 issue of MacHome magazine featured various education programs across the country, including the Media Kids Project directed by Rita Yee, manager of the SFSU College of Education's Cahill Learning Resources and Media Lab. The project trains SFSU undergraduate students as computer tutors for children at Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco. SFSU freshmen involved with Media Kids are also trained to develop interactive bilingual reading and social studies activities for the Sanchez students. "The project addresses the digital divide issues that confront our immigrant communities," Yee said.

Mission statement on gentrification

An article in the Nov. 28, 2000, issue of the San Francisco Examiner featured Nancy Mirabal, SFSU assistant professor of La Raza studies, and her research on gentrification in the Mission District. By gathering oral histories of the social landscape in the Mission District from area residents, Mirabal and her students found many Latino residents are unaware of the effect of gentrification on their lives. "I noticed an incredible amount of change in the Mission. Students of mine, man y of whom live in the Mission, came to me and mentioned evictions and longtime businesses disappearing," she said. "We wanted to do it before the Mission become something unrecognizable." Mirabal said the research focuses heavily on the Latino community as being the most affected, yet most overlooked.

A few good men

Time magazine ran a story on Dec. 11, 2000, about the shortage of male undergraduate students, a hot topic of debate among college-admissions officers. Since 1992, the number of men enrolled in college nationwide has declined to 44 percent of undergraduate students. The article noted that the number of male applicants has risen at SFSU. "In the past year, we've seen a slight increase in the number of minority males who have applied," said SFSU La Raza Studies Professor Roberto Haro, who ha s been recruiting males at Boys Clubs and middle schools in poor neighborhoods. By 2010, the share of male students is expected to drop to 42 percent nationwide. In response, some private colleges have made specific efforts to recruit more men, while public schools are concerned about the possibility of legal actions from doing so.

Judaism books find new home

The Jan. 5 issue of the Jewish Bulletin featured the Marvin L. Silverman Jewish Studies reading room at SFSU, the new home for nearly 2,000 books donated by the Jewish Community Library of the Bureau of Jewish Education. "The students have been thrilled that they're finding materials on the shelves that they wouldn't otherwise be able to find at San Francisco State," said Fred Astren, SFSU Jewish studies associate professor. "It's a wonderful resource for those interested in studying Judai sm, right here on campus." Astren hopes the new books will strengthen the Jewish studies program.

Note-for-note education

"I have a passion about making sure everyone is aware that our kids need music," said SFSU Music Professor Carolynn Lindeman in the Dec. 31, 2000, issue of the Marin Independent Journal. Recently appointed to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Greenbrae resident was the subject of the "Marin Profile," a weekly Sunday Q&A feature. As the only music educator on the committee, she intends to urge the Kennedy Center to enha nce its music programs for school-age children. "I decided that why I need to be on this committee is to let people know what it is to be a professional music educator, someone who devotes a professional life to teaching," Lindeman said.

ID is key to job search

To adapt to today's fast-changing job market, job seekers must allow themselves to change as well, said SFSU Counseling Professor Robert C. Chope in an article that appeared recently in the San Jose Mercury News, San Diego Union-Tribuneand Kansas City Star. "The job market changes so quickly, the technology changes so quickly, that if you're not going to learn something new, it might not be a good move for you," he said. Chope added that developing a "flexible career i dentity " can help ease the transition between jobs: "If you make it a generic enough identity, there may be 50 things you can do."

Bridging the distance for Braille

On Dec. 14, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on one of SFSU's successful distance-learning programs. The program trains students to work with the visually impaired at five different sites across California, spanning from Butte Community College in Oroville to CSU San Marcos. For last semester's Braille class, instructor Stephanie Leigh, special education, used a live video feed and the Internet to help her students learn to read and type Braille and how to teach it to others. Stuart Wi ttenstein, superintendent of the California School for the Blind, said that SFSU's distance programs and similar models help address the national shortage of teachers of the visually impaired. He noted that such programs help reach teachers in rural areas. "We really do have to be creative and reach out and find ways to teach people," he said.

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