California State University East Bay

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California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

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Letter to the Editor: Education – It is a Right!

As a former alumni of the California State University, San Francisco State Univ, 1996 B.A. International Relations, Minor in Asian American Studies; 1998 M.A. International Relations, focus on National Security Policy and Comparative Foreign Policy of ASEAN nations, I find the importance of sharing with you this experience may open the eyes of our students, faculty, and staff who struggle with the current back-lash of our current economic downturn, more so, the lack of resources for higher education and availability of courses to our number one clients, the STUDENTS.

Last Fall Quarter 2011, I was faced with a cap of 35 students, and had a waiting list of 15 students. The course I teach is with the Modern Languages and Literature department, Elementary Filipino 1651, 1652 & 1653. As I remember being a student, as long as there was a chair in the classroom and we were in compliance with regulations of the State Fire Marshall’s office on occupancy issues, an instructor may add students. So, I did.

This Winter quarter 2012, again I had a cap of 35 students, This time, I had a wait list of 6 students whom I gladly accepted, due to the reasons that they were enrolled in the Fall quarter, and I had extra chairs. On the second day of class, January 12, I signed their add forms, and gave it to the department to add. A week later, students came to me asking why they weren’t added, and I went back to the department, and was told that the department chair, Monique Manopoulos and Dean, Jim Okutsu specifically told her not to add any students in Filipino language class. The add forms were returned to me. On email, I appealed several times to the chair and to Dean Okutsu, and my efforts were futile. I then, emailed Interim Dean Kathleen Rountree, requesting her assistance and intervention on the matter, explaining to her that I had enough room, and that my students were worried. I couldn’t see why the students were being held hostage on this matter. I continued to state my case, and had an exchange of emails with Interim Dean Rountree, basically provided me the reason of “FIRE MARSHALL” regulations. I repeatedly stated to the Interim Dean, and the rest of the people that I cc’d on my email that the capacity of the room is not at 35, but is at 49, and to prove my point further, I even researched by calling the State of California, Fire Marshall’s office, the City of Hayward Fire Marshall and CSUEB University Planner, to only receive confirmation that the room’s capacity is at 49. I took photos of the classroom and sent that too. By this time, I reached out also to CFA, the California Faculty Association, and was assigned to a grievance officer who spoke to the Dean’s office, It’s January 24th, and two to three weeks of classes have been in session, and the distraction placed upon my students, is inexcusable. Students from class wrote letters of concern and couldn’t understand what the hold up was.

Today, I believe these students are finally added to the roster. What I struggle with is the fact that they did not have to go through a process as I described, had the department chair, the dean’s office listened to my plea and advocacy for these students, as well as, looking out for the well-being of the students, without thinking twice or the compensation that was blocking their decision to add these students. Other instructors in our department didn’t have to ask twice to add students, nor did they have an issue of impropriety to the student and instructor. Does this fall under discrimination? Is Filipino language not as important as Spanish or French or Japanese?

Issue is: Access, There is no access to the powers at be that can make a difference for a student. Back in the days, when I was A.S. Vice President at SF State University, I always had direct access to President Robert Corrigan’s office, and to Dean of Student Affairs, Penny Saffold. I’d like to see the same for our students at CSUEB. Lets even the playing field, and get rid of the apathy that we see within the university.

To President Morishita, I congratulate you for your official appointment as CSUEB’s president. However, I also put forth to you that there’s a lot to be done with the student needs at CSUEB, the image and procedure of how other administrators operate; this notion of a hierarchy that is unreachable; instead, students just give up before even trying to resolve their individual day-to-day issues, because they are not given any guidance, support or encouragement to resolve their issues. At the end of the day, I hope to see that you have an administration that is compassionate, approachable, astute and sensitive to student’s learning and needs; that CSUEB have instructors who really care about their students learning, and that staff also be rewarded for the support that they give to our students. It’s really simple, let’s go back to the basics.

I quote, President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address:
“Teachers matter. So instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo, let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. And in return, grant schools flexibility: to teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn. That’s a bargain worth making”…
“So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can’t be a luxury. It is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”

Thank you.

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California State University East Bay
Letter to the Editor: Education – It is a Right!