Echo Times / Nov. 26, 2013

College of Marin Nov 26, 2013

Soccer team ends season with 5-9-5 record

Women’s volleyball wraps up 5-11 season

Page 9

Page 10

Freshman Stan Kaya, an international student who was born in the Republic of Congo, is the new forward on COM’s basketball team.

Cover photo by Sindy Smart

We are the World

Page 4

COM celebrates International Education Week

Page 6

Congolese student Stan Kaya joins the Mariners

Features

Echo Times

College of MarinKentfield, California

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2 College of marin Nov. 26, 2013

Dean of Arts and Humanities

David Snyder has worked with eight different vice presidents in the eight years he has been the Dean

of Arts and Humanities at the College of Marin. During his tenure, the college has faced budget cuts, accreditation issues, and major construction challenges.

Snyder manages six departments: English/Humanities, Modern Languages, Communications, Fine Arts, Performing Arts, and one of the largest departments at COM, College Skills, which includes English as a Second Language.

His administrative responsibilities include scheduling, facilities, resource management, and resolving disputes and problems with faculty and students. Part of his role as administrator involves planning meetings, coordinating faculty evaluations, and balancing the buget for six departments.

His favorite part of the job is when he is able to collaborate with faculty and staff on creative ideas and solutions to problems. He finds working to resolve disputes between individuals the most challenging, and recently resolved some issues with facilities. Although he feels that things are improving at COM, he would love to see the college attract some good administrators who would commit to staying at the college longer.

As a manager, Snyder is liked and respected by his staff. Eileen Acker, his administrative assistant, said, “He is very smart.”

Jamie Tipton, an adjunct instructor in the English Department, said, “He seems to be genuinely interested in the humanities. When he observed my creative writing class, on a purely business basis, he ended up participating in the class and said he would like to take it. People may not know it, but he’s supportive of students and faculty who engage in the creative arts themselves: I’ve seen him at several plays put on by the COM Drama Department. He read my novel, and once, when I dropped by his office, I noticed my book of poetry behind him on top of a stack of papers.”

Snyder was born on January 25, 1958 in Duluth, Minnesota. When he was in kindergarten he wanted to be an archeologist. In junior high he aspired to be an architect. And in high school he dreamed of becoming an adventurer. These early aspirations contributed to his career path and his choices in educational institutions.

His time at Evergreen State College, in Washington, where he received his B.A. in Liberal Arts, initially framed his outlook on education. The college provided an alternative to a standard college education. The only major offered there was Liberal Arts, emphasizing a coordinated studies program including but not limited to organic agriculture, community policies, anthropology and literature. College-wide enrollment ranged from 25 to 60 students.

Each student had one to two instructors throughout their four-year education.

Snyder engaged in a career outside conventional endeavors. In his early 20s he took a job at The Off Campus School, a drop-out prevention program for high school students. Forty pupils attended this alternative high school, which was located in two old houses in Olympia, Washington. Within two years Snyder advanced from teacher and bookkeeper to head administrator.

In the late 1980s, his thirst for adventure and work experience with troubled teens led him to VisionQuest, an innovative rehabilitation program. Juveniles were sent to live on a wagon train, comprised of 10 covered wagons, five tee-pees, and 50 horses and mules. Seventy-five students, ages 16 through 19, were referred to VisionQuest by the California Youth Authority, as an alternative to going to jail.

Snyder was a tee-pee parent on the wagon train for a year.

The wagon-train traversed the deserts of the Southwest and the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. To earn the right to ride a horse, people had to walk 25 miles in the desert... in a day. Snyder passed the endurance test, and enjoyed riding a horse as a scout, either in the front of the wagon train or at the back. He said he enjoyed the solitude, the desert and the early morning sunrises. He noted that the kids were less angry after the program, but he was uncertain if it had a lasting impact upon them because once the kids completed it, they returned to their original neighborhoods.

After this job, Snyder worked on a fishing boat in Alaska, then drove a bus in Seattle. Later, he enrolled at U.C. Berkeley, where he earned his master’s in City Planning with an emphasis on Community Development in 1992, and got

his Ph.D. in Education, with an emphasis on social and cultural studies, in 1995.

After graduate school, Snyder spent three years as a camp counselor in Encampment for Citizenship, a youth leadership program at the Marin Headlands. Youth from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds participated, including Lakato, Navajo, and inner-city kids.

Over the next several years he held jobs at three different colleges: Albernia College (now Albernia University) located in Amish Country one hour outside Philadelphia; Middlebury College in Vermont; and San Diego Mesa College, where he served as associate dean of Humanities and Languages for two and a half years.

In a family whose names all start with “D”, (parents: Don and Diana; siblings: Dori, Debbie and Dan) Snyder stands out from the crowd.

At 6-foot-one, green-eyed and lean, his skin has that ruddy tone normally attributed to young men in the prime of their life. He claims living in the Pacific Northwest for much of his adult life has shielded his skin from sun damage, He’s a pescetarian who enjoys yoga, biking, and weight training.

He also loves to garden. He grows vegetables, such as kale and carrots, herbs such as St. John’s wort, and recently planted some gardenia bulbs that his mother sent to him.

Snyder also enjoys camping in his 2005 green Honda Element because its seats can be configured to maximize car camping needs for sleeping and cooking. He has traveled around the world and enjoys seeing other cultures. Bali is one of his favorite spots because the people are so warm.

Two of his friends – Hobie and his wife, April – are living with him this semester while they attend classes at College of Marin. Both are Americans who live and work in Nicaragua. They run a yoga and health spa and are starting a farm there. Hobie is taking classes in Integrated Pest Management at the Organic Farm at the Indian Valley Campus, while April is pursuing her general education requirements at Kentfield.

Snyder’s interests, education, and career experience contribute to his unique vision for COM’s future. He says he’d like to see the college move toward offering “accelerated transfer learning communities, where you can get all of your general educational requirements out of the way by linking your classes together to fulfill more than one general education requirement.”

He notes: “College is a place for students to open their minds. Students should use all the resources we have to offer to enable them to do that. Take advantage of the faculty’s office hours if you need help and talk to our counselor’s for support.”

ECHO TIMESBy Leslie Lee

David Snyder, dean of Arts and Humanities.Photo by Sindy Smart

David Snyder Profile

3ECHO TIMESNov. 26, 2013

News

On Friday October 25, 2013 College of Marin hosted guest speaker Erika

Andiola, an immigration activist from Arizona and undocumented resident.

“I had to leave everything that I had known — friends, family, my home at a very young age, I had no choice,” said Andiola. “I left Mexico with only a backpack full of [trinkets], not what people assume — drugs, and walked the desert with my siblings and mother in search of a better life. Better life is the opportunity to grow with education.”

Andiola said she came to the U.S. when she was 11, when her mother left her abusive father in Mexico and illegally crossed the border. When the state legislature passed strict new immigration laws, she was majoring in Psychology at Arizona State University. Andiola lost her scholarships when these new were implemented. That’s when she began her career as an activist crusading on behalf of the DREAM Act.

The original DREAM Act bill, called the Development, Relief and Education

for Alien Minors Act, was first introduced to Congress in 2001. The purpose of the bill was to provide millions of children of illegal immigrants who graduate from high school the opportunity to become a U.S. resident. Children who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, and have been living in the U.S. for at least five years before the bill is enacted into a law, would be granted residency.

Since its introduction, the DREAM

Act has been controversial. Its enactment has repeatedly been blocked by Republicans for the last decade. Multiple versions of the bill offering different forms of citizenship have been proposed, but none have passed.

Andiola spoke about the importance of education for the immigrant community, and her hopes that passage of the DREAM Act would create better opportunities for higher eduction. Several versions of

the law have included clauses requiring fulfillment of academic standards.

In 2009, after losing her scholarship, Andiola was able to complete her psychology degree. Early in 2013, her family was arrested and threatened with deportation. They were released after allegations that the arrests were retribution for Andiola’s activist role. She continues to campaign for immigrant rights, and the passage of the DREAM Act.

ECHO TIMES

By Erika Rosales

Photo by Erika Rosales

Erika Andiola, an Arizona immigration activist, spoke here last month about the significance of the DREAM Act.

Sharing theDREAM

Features4 College of marin Nov. 26, 2013

With the flags of 34 nations forming a semi-circle on the lawn in front of the Student

Services Building, COM President David Wain Coon stepped up to hit a giant gong and officially declare the opening of the college’s first International Education Week. The flags represent the nearly three dozen countries that COM’s 100 international students come from.

Approximately 75 guests attended the event, which signals the growing role that ethnic diversity plays at the college.

This is a breakout year for International Education at College of Marin. As recently as three years ago, programs for enhancing international student life and retention were sparse or non-existent. International students contributed to college life and academics but with little formal recognition or centralized support. There was also no office coordinating the effort to infuse global perspectives and intercultural exchange into post-secondary education at COM.

When Jason Lau was appointed the director of International Education, in

September 2011, all of that began to change.

Since Lau’s hiring, the groundwork has been laid for programs that promise to profoundly affect the entire student body and the college as a whole.

“Together with Lau, we are really

trying to raise the bar,” Coon said, “and put an extra, additional emphasis on our international program from recruiting more students, just in general, from all parts of the world but also making the students’ experience better and more of a quality experience all around,” said

President Coon.During spring semester 2013, around

100 international students attended either the Intensive English Program (IEP) in Indian Valley or credit classes in Kentfield. This number represents 5 percent of the total student population and according to Lau, in 5 years “we probably will double, if not triple, in size.”

International Education Week is perhaps the most visible of the efforts to internationalize the COM campus. International Education Week is an initiative of the Departments of State and Education and has been celebrated at colleges and universities across the country since 2000.

This year’s International Education Week at COM, held between November 12 and 15, was a well-balanced mixture of fun, entertainment, intellectual enrichment and of course, international food.

“This week brought an awareness of international education to not only our student population but to everyone here at COM. It shows the diversity of our growing community and the acceptance, understanding and excitement of this new, globally-enriched world we live in,” said International Student Advisor Rebecca Freeland.

ECHO TIMES

By Brady Meyring

COM celebrates International Education Week

Photo by Roger DormannCOM President David Wain Coon congratulates Jason Lau, director of International Education, for overseeing the growth of the college’s International Student Program.


Features / News

The Board of Trustees election wrapped up two weeks ago, with incumbent

trustees Wanden Treanor and Diana Conti retaining their seats. The race between Barbara Dolan and newcomer Brady Bevis was tight, but in the end, Bevis pulled ahead with 21.3 percent of all tallied votes, compared to Dolan’s 20.5.

Previously, Bevis worked for the state Department of Labor, and before that, she practiced public interest law for 10 years. She also served on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. After serving a successful term, she left politics

temporarily to focus on starting the Bay Area Multimedia Partnership, or BAMP, at the request of the Bay Area Economic Forum. BAMP was a public-private partnership that operated between 1997

and 2000, designed to coordinate the Bay Area’s private industry leaders with the local schools and community colleges in order to better prepare prospective students for employment in the emerging

digital industry. When asked about the results of the

election, Bevis said, “I’m overjoyed that over 20,000 people voted for change at COM, and I will work hard to make COM a better place for students and faculty alike.”

She unseated trustee veteran of 25 years, Barbara Dolan, joining the College of Marin board of trustees. Bevis plans to unite the college with the community in order to provide better job opportunities within the local job market.

This will be the first new trustee on the board in over five years, and a welcome change to the college. Dolan was not available for comment.

Following the opening ceremony much of the audience stayed to watch the “friendship games” held on the quad. Two mixed teams of American and international students amicably battled in four events: a team ski race, a balloon popping game, a rope-ball transfer challenge, and finally, tug-of-war. All participants were rewarded with ice cream and the games helped set the tone for the week’s theme of intercultural exchange and friendship.

Lunch time on the first day featured free Chinese, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Korean and Turkish foods sponsored by ASCOM and the International Education Office.

“I’m enjoying the free food,” commented international student Troy Emano, “It feels nice because I’ve only been here for two months. I came from the Philippines.”

After eating, a large crowd gathered to watch the nine members of Capoeira Mandinga of Marin perform in the center of the cafeteria. Capoeira is a martial-art-dance and the audience was clearly mesmerized by their acrobatic moves and improvisation.

The first day was completed with an international education information fair in the Deedy Staff Lounge and an exciting fashion show on the quad featuring nine models.

“To see our students proudly wear the traditional dress from their home country was amazing,” said Freeland. “You have to remember that our international students are extremely far from home, but for that day they were able to share a piece of their home with us here, and it was truly touching.”

Staff from Greenbrae’s Peet’s Coffee & Tea were present after the show to provide complimentary tastings of international coffees and teas.

Tuesday, November 13, the second day of International Education Week was also packed with activities. A workshop on “crossing cultures” was held and a hands-on demonstration of making spring rolls took place in the cafeteria.

“The cooking demonstration was fun as students were taken out of their comfort zone and asked to make something new,” said International Education

Administrative Assistant Valerie Marckwordt.

After lunch, college employee Jesse Klein, and her husband Mike, sang two songs in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines. This moment was made even more moving by the recent typhoon and loss of life in that island nation. The second day was rounded out with classes in both Hula and Bollywood dance which were attended by a small but enthusiastic number.

The final day of International Education Week was no let-down. A panel discussion was held in Deedy on the topic of “Adjusting to Life in a Foreign Country.”

Four international and one American student spoke candidly and revealingly about their personal experience with cultural adaptation. The engaging conversation lasted for an hour and a quarter but could have easily continued longer.

Next, Chinese calligraphy practice, under the direction of Chinese and ESL Professor Shuyu Liu, had students crowding the tables set-up in the Student Services Building entryway.

The closing event of International

Education Week was a competition called the World Trivia Challenge. Five teams of students answered questions over five rounds and the winners received gift certificates from Sol Food Restaurant and Barnes & Noble.

Commenting on the entire week, student Peter Tallo said, “It’s been pretty fun, a lot of interesting people. It gets me away from my studies. I was walking around and I had no idea it existed. I saw some signs and it sounded good, so I got involved.”

Because this was the first year, many students may have been taken by surprise by this new, multi-day event. But one thing is certain, International Education Week is here to stay and according to Freeland, “This will soon become the event that everyone looks forward to year after year.“

Another initiative of the International Education Office that has been gaining momentum is the Conversation Partners Program open to anyone in the college community wanting to practice another language or make an international friend.

The Conversation Partner Program features an online registration form where brief biographical information is submitted and used to help the International

Education Office match participants. Once a match has been achieved, partners meet when able for informal conversation practice. Currently the database holds over two dozen potential language partners.

The development of this program is not only a tremendous asset for international students at COM but also for domestic students engaged in foreign language study or planning to travel overseas.

“I think it has the potential to certainly enrich the international student experience here at COM and hopefully we’ve got some domestic students that are actually participating in the program because then I think that the opportunities would be two-fold,” said President Coon.

The program’s first conversational meet-up took place on November 4. To help kick-off the program, Coon agreed to meet with Mariana Weber, an international student from Brazil, for a lunch conversation at Woodlands Café in Kentfield.

“It’s very scary to come to a different country without knowing what you’re talking about and without knowing people so I really hope that this can help international students. I’m very proud to be a part of this,” said Weber.

Photo by Marco Minoia

COM students display their diversity at a fashion show held recently in the quad during International Education Week earlier this month.

Diana ContiBrady Bevis Wanden Treanor

Incumbents re-elected, newcomer wins seat on Board of TrusteesECHO TIMES

By R.J. Heckelman and Andrew Lino

International student Stan Kaya will never forget the day rebel soldiers came knocking at his door. He was

only 5 years old at the time. What started off like any other evening with his family would quickly turn into the most terrifying night of his young life.

The pounding at the front door that night was so loud it startled the whole family, with the exception of his father, who was napping in a back room.

As Kaya’s mother hurriedly crossed the living room to open the door, the shouting became louder and more urgent. It seemed as if the door would bust open at any moment.

Even at his age, Kaya knew that his country, the Republic of Congo, was in turmoil. There were powerful factions at odds with each other. Boniface Kaya, his father, was a prominent physician, not only in his hometown, Dolisie, but throughout the Congo. As a supporter of former President Pascal Lissouba, who had been overthrown in a coup, Boniface was a target. Rebels were scouring the countryside for Lissouba sympathizers.

Before Stan’s mom, Marinique Lembe, opened the front door, her children could hear men shouting in Lingala.

“Where is Dr. Kaya? Get him now!” The family recognized the rebels

as Northerners from the Mbochi tribe – enemies of their tribe, the Bembe. The children watched as their mother tried to explain that Dr. Kaya was asleep in the back of the house. The rebels insisted. They wanted her to get him right away. Intimidated by the AK-47s the soldiers were brandishing, Marinique complied.

After Stan’s father appeared, the rebels led him outside for questioning. The following minutes seemed like an eternity for Marinique and her family as they waited inside.

Stan still recalls that terrifying night in 1999, when the Northern rebels invaded his family’s home in the Congo.

“When they took my father outside, we didn’t know if they were going to kill him.”

After questioning Dr. Kaya, the rebels ordered the remainder of the family outside as they proceeded to riddle the house with bullets – to make sure they weren’t harboring Lissouba supporters.

Then they forced Marinique back inside the house to show them where the

Sports Feature

Hoop Dreams


ECHO TIMES

By Shirley Beaman

Stan Kaya points to the spot on the globe where his country is located. Marin County is 8,725 miles from his home, the Republic of the Congo in equitorial Africa.

Congolese star basketball player looks ‘forward’ to his new role

Profile of international student Stan Kaya

Photos by Sindy Smart

Freshman Stan Kaya joined COM’s varsity basketball team as a forward this year.

family kept their money and jewelry. “When they shot up our home, my

mother was burned by some of the shell casings as they flew off their guns,” Stan says. “I will never forget the sounds of the AK-47s. It’s a terrible, terrible sound…”

But the ordeal didn’t end there. After the rebels left the Kaya’s home, they moved up the road and targeted the owner of an SUV. When he refused to hand over his car keys, they shot him in both legs. The victim’s friend ran to Dr. Kaya’s house, looking for help. Still shaken from the earlier incident, Stan’s mom explained to the wounded man’s friend that her husband was not a surgeon. The man later died.

Stan looks back at the incident as a turning point.

“I remember thinking, I’ve got to get out of here, this is crazy!”

It was the first time in his life he realized he wasn’t safe, even in his own home.

In 1999 – the year his family was terrorized – the Niari region where Stan’s family lived was hit particularly hard. There was a lot of violence, which caused great destruction and loss of life. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced and the region became paralyzed economically.

It’s a miracle that the family survived this difficult chapter in their lives, as the Congo was being torn apart by rival tribes battling each other for power.

Fourteen years later, Stan moved halfway around the world. By way of Cameroon, Florida and Maryland.

Before leaving his home in the Congo, his mother gave her blessings.

“Go my son, you’re a man now, and I don’t know when you’ll come back.”

But how exactly does one get from the Congo to San Geronimo Valley, where Stan now resides.

Basketball was his ticket.Although several colleges, including

Georgetown and Southern Illinois, were

interested in the freshman, he chose COM, where he will be wearing a Mariner’s basketball jersey this season.

Marin’s amenities are part of the attraction for Stan and COM’s 100 other international students. A poster in the ESL office at the Kentfield campus shows some of the 82 countries that are represented by students here.

Lured here by the affordability of California’s community college education system, and the beauty of Northern California, it was a no brainer. Without a scholarship to a four-year college, COM offered small class size and the possibility of transferring to nearby world-class, four-year universities.

And there was another reason.“It’s warm here,” he says,” I love it!”

He speaks know- ledgeably about the history and geography of his country, which he learned from his mother, a former geography teacher and school principal.

The seven Kaya children were encouraged to do well in school by both of their parents. Their father, Boniface, was a nationally recognized pediatrician. Dr. Kaya, educated in France, was offered residency there. However, he turned it down to return home to help his people.

“He was a good man,” Stan said. “ He was a survivor.”

Stan’s childhood was a happy one, however, there were times when he too had to be a survivor.

“Before my dad was born, his mother lost six children – six children! He was the first to survive, so he was very special.”

One of Stan’s older sisters died from cancer in 2006. She was only 13.

Several years later, as a teenager, Stan was introduced to basketball, which he developed a talent and passion for. While playing in a tournament in Brazzaville, the nation’s capital, he received a call from one of his older brothers, informing him

that his father had died. The 17-year-old had lost a second

member of his family within five years. He couldn’t help but wonder if his

father’s death was politically motivated. He still wonders.

“My father had a bad stomach ache, and six hours later he was dead.”

Tragedies like these make children grow up fast.

That year, he left his home in the Congo to live with an uncle in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, where he attended high school and developed his skills as a basketball player.

While there, he earned a scholarship to attend a high school in Jacksonville, Florida. His journey to America was strewn with challenges. Along the way he missed several flights and was forced to stay overnight with various relatives and friends. Trying to fit his 6-foot-6-inch body into a standard coach seat was challenging, too, and just added to his fatigue and discomfort.

“I was so upset, I didn’t speak any English during all this. I was confused and I was getting mad,” he recalls.

Shortly after the high school junior settled with his host family in Florida, he became disappointed with his school’s academic standards.

“I thought, ‘my mom is going to kill me if she finds out I’m not challenging myself academically here.’”

So he moved to Leonardtown, Maryland to attend another school, where he found a balance between sports and academics. He took English, history and British literature.

On the basketball court, competition was good. He travelled to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Baltimore for tournaments. In his first game as a forward, he scored 41 points. He led his varsity team in scoring and rebounding that season.

He received the 2012-2013 All-County Athlete of the Year Award his senior year.

“He is a great kid and he gives it everything he has in practice, and that shows on the court,” his head coach, Dave Tallman told the Maryland Community News.

After graduation he moved to Marin. His host mother in Maryland still calls him

Sports Feature7ECHO TIMESNov. 26, 2013

Kaya jokingly imitates Ray Charles on his San Geronimo Valley host family’s piano.

“ Go my son, you’re a man now, and I don’t know when you’ll come back.”

– Marinique Lembe, Stan’s mother

Kaya learned how to play basketball in the Republic of the Congo, where he grew up.Photo courtesy of Stan Kaya

Stan Kaya Continued on next page

every day to see how he’s doing. He currently lives with his new host

family in San Geronimo Valley near the golf course. Aidan O’Sullivan, an independent contractor, agreed to host Stan in his home for two years while he attends COM. It works out well, since O’Sullivan’s son Paul is both his roommate and teammate.

The two compliment each other. And they share similar experiences.

“Paul is good at defense, and Stan is good at offense. I’m hoping the two will learn from one another,” says O’Sullivan. “I cook. Paul cooks. Stan’s learning his way around the kitchen, too.”

It goes deeper than sports and cooking. “My mom passed away in December,”

Paul says.Stan, whose father died when he was

17, knows all about that kind of loss. “My dad thought it would be good to

mix things up a bit,” Paul says. “The whole situation is unique. I’m a white boy from

Marin and Stan is from the Congo. That’s stuff I’ve seen in a movie, but now I know somebody who was in that situation, so I’m closer to it.”

Stan’s grateful to the O’Sullivans for their generosity. He feels right at home with their family.

“They are good people,” he says.Paul and Stan have much in common,

including a love of gaming.The two have become like brothers,

going to school together every day, playing basketball on the same team, watching movies, and playing video games together.

“He works hard,” Paul says. “And I like working hard.”

Coach Granucci says both young men are indeed hard workers, and they are part of a mentally tough and confident team.

Living together has provided them with the opportunity to learn from each other, as teammates and family.

“[I’m] lucky that I’ve got somebody from the Congo living 15 feet away from me,” Paul says.

The College of Marin men’s basketball team posted its first win of the season during a tournament

at City College of San Francisco on November 9. After shaking off a first round loss to Santa Rosa in the tournament, the Mariners were victorious over Napa the following day with a 51-38 win.

Head Coach Dave Granucci reported that Neil Chavez, son of Pro-Am league legend Bucky Chavez, contributed by shooting a consistent 8 for 11 from the free throw line. Point guard T.J. Rhodes also played an important role by controlling the tempo of the game.

The win over Napa earned the Mariners a spot in the consolation championship game against returning JC state champs, Mount San Antonio, the following day. The Mariners trailed by just 5 points at halftime, 30-25. COM’s Pierre Carter led the charge for the Mariners, contributing 20 points, including two from three point range, and shooting 7-11 from the line. Miller Blake and Allen Santos contributed 15 and 12 points, respectively. Mt. SAC outshot COM at the free-throw line, and it was costly in the end. The Mounties came out on top, 67-56.

(On November 22, the team posted their first win at home against West Valley College, 63-59.)

With 12 freshman on the roster this year, Granucci understands there might be a few bumps in the road early on.

“We have a lot of work to do to ultimately become the team we wish to be. These are committed young men and I think we will get there,” Granucci said. With the “first game jitters” out of the way, the Mariners have the rest of the

season to work toward and improve upon last year’s 16-10 record, the best season COM has had in 14 years.

Both Granucci and assistant coach Troy Ratto, Marin natives, take pride in their teams’ success on and off the court.

Allen Santos, who contributed 15 points in the game against former state champions Mt. SAC, is also a business major with a 3.5 GPA.

Forward Stan Kaya, an international student athlete from the Republic of the Congo, was honored as the All County Athlete of the Year out of St. Mary’s

Ryken High School, in Maryland. Kaya can now add English to the list of three other languages he speaks fluently.

Granucci can relate, having played professionally in Italy, as well as in the Pro-Am league.

Three of last year’s starters received full ride scholarships to Division Two schools. Assistant coaches Troy Ratto, Ken Streckfus, Mike Mitchell, and Jesse Lumb are doing what they can to improve upon that. Granucci and his staff have cultivated a family friendly atmosphere among their players that they hope will

contribute to their teams’ quest for success on the court and in the classroom.

Team members break their huddles with “FAMILY!”

The head coach describes this year’s players as “mentally tough, confident, relentless, and hard working. All our guys work their tail off. Keeping these guys together for the next two years is key. Now we have a group we can build on.”

COM students, friends and family are invited to get in on the action by sporting school colors and joining the Sixth Man cheering section at home and away games.

Sports

ECHO TIMES

By Shirley Beaman

Photo by Sindy Smart



Men’s basketball season unfolds

San Geronimo family hosts international student

COM’s basketball team prepares for its next home game against Napa, which will be held after the holidays on Thursday, January 2.

Stan Kaya, right, enjoys playing video games, like FIFA, with his teammate / roommate, Paul O’Sullivan, whose family is hosting the international student at their San Geronimo home.

Stan Kaya Continued from previous page

Sports

COM’s men’s soccer team finished off a middling season comprised of five wins, nine ties, and five losses.

Coach Ben Studholme thinks the next season will only be better. “It’s gone well,” he said prior to the final game. “There’s specifically a fall season, in this season we play 20 games, 12 are conference games and eight are non-conference games. It started in mid-August and it ends in mid-to-early December depending on that ability of the team to make the playoffs.”

Men’s soccer hasn’t been in the regional playoffs since the 2008 season, and this season, with a lot of new blood and fresh faces, the Mariners were nearly set to follow through on that. They boasted a strong backline of defenders like Larry Estrada and Mohammed Manneh, and their offense, while mostly newbies, were set to increase their skills and help drive up their ability to score. Last season, that was the exact problem—there weren’t enough players skilled enough to consistently score. Over the 20 games of that season, the Mariners only bagged 11 goals. This season, the tally was raised somewhat to 14 goals in 13 games.

The first two games were uneventful, the first a 2-2 tie with De Anza and the second a 2-0 loss against Chabot. But by far the most dramatic game of the early season was the September 13, Friday afternoon game against Skyline. Initially the Mariners lagged behind at 2-0, but then, when all hope had failed, our lads came back with a resounding four goals to win the game at 4-3. Those four goals in one game, out of a total of 14 goals in 13 games, clearly show that the Mariners gave their best performance that day. The game was played at Kentfield.

The first Mariners goal of the game was during the first half, when Striker Michael Carvalho scored. COM went into halftime trailing 2-1, but then, just five minutes into the second half, Striker Larry Estrada scored, tying up the game. The Mariners went on to score twice more, a third by Estrada and a fourth by Mohammed Manneh in the dying gasps of the game. The Mariners played Ohlone on the road on the following Tuesday, which resulted in a 1-1 tie.

The next few games followed a similar pattern of trading losses for ties, until the October 8 game against Napa, where the Mariners won 2-1.

The pattern continued again until the 18th, when the Mariners won again against Yuba, again at Kentfield. With two goals in the first 20 minutes of the game, it ended at 2-0. Again, the coordinated Mariners

defense was on full display. “We’re fast, we’re not the most

physical team in the world, but if we do get the ball to the players, we have about five or six guys that are true playmakers. And if we play quickly and get away from the more physical teams, then we tend to have quite a bit of success. I’ve got a couple of kids who are really good around the goal, so it’s just a matter of staying away from the physicality of the games and dictating the tempo through ball movement and speed of play,” Studholme said.

Imran Nana is a midfield player on the team and he also studies economics at the college. “[the season] went okay. We definitely could have done better, but it was just about what we expected. We do tend to score a decent amount of goals, and we’re pretty even all around. Guess we don’t keep enough shutouts would probably be my thing,” he said regarding the team’s strengths and weaknesses. “We do score goals, though.”

“There’s three probably I’d call the best on the team, Austin Miranda on defense, standout, he kept out a lot of goals. When he’s on our team he just makes it so much better. Alan Estrada’s played really good, he’s one of the more creative players, and then his brother Larry Estrada. Almost every goal has one of them behind it.”

Right-left defence and English/Creative Writing student Andrew Lino agreed with Nana about the Estradas. “I’ve seen Larry do some incredible things on the field to pull us out of holes that we dug ourselves in, I’ve seen Alan playing in midfield also pull us out of holes. A lot of it is that when things go wrong in a soccer game, you just have to keep playing on,” he said.

“But on any given day, it could be some other player who steps out and wins it for the team.”

Asked what he thought about the Mariners’ strengths and weaknesses, he also agreed with Anna that Austin Miranda’s defensive game was always top-notch. “We have a very strong defense when our starting defensive line is in tip-top condition. Our offense has potential to be really strong when they aren’t getting down on themselves or dealing with injuries. Our midfield has a lot of potential, there’s still disconnect between the defense and midfield, and sometimes between the midfield and the offense, and whether that’s the offense’s fault of the midfield’s fault, well, I don’t know. It’s touch-and-go.”

“I would say the most valuable players are Larry Estrada, he’s a sophomore, he’s smaller in size and frame but he knows how to go, he’s got a real motor, great skill and a true passion for the game. Another

sophomore is Michael Carvalho, he’s just around the ball, he’s got a nose for the goal, he’s very fast and light on his feet,” Lino said.

Studholme said that the 2.0 grade-point average required to play on the team was normally too demanding, but that it did depend entirely on the student.

“Consistently, you know, with the JC, it’ll always be a young team. You’ll always hear we have a lot of freshmen, unfortunately, that’s just the way it works. Guys just don’t understand the real college atmosphere in terms of responsibility. They’re not used to it, so they have a tendency that when push comes to shove, they fail. And then figure out how to deal with failure. So usually, I’ll have a kid who’ll come here and take three years to play two, or four years to play two. He just

won’t understand how to ‘compete in the classroom’ yet.”

“I would say I’m very hands on, I’m very strict and rigid, since what I’m asking them to do is very specific. I would say this is a player’s game, so I try to give them as much information and training as possible so that they can apply what’s necesarry for success I wouldn’t say I try to constrain them on any level other than I try to let them know, “Hey, this game will reward us if we do simple things well,” Studholme said.

“I think he’s a devoted coach,” Lino said of Studholme. The last game was on Tuesday, November 12, and was against Napa in Napa at 3:00 PM. Unfortunately, the Mariners suffered a 4-2 loss, and ultimately finished out the season with a 5-9-5 record.

Men’s soccer team breaks even with 5-9-5 seasonECHO TIMES

By Nash Kurilko

COM soccer players Jose De La Rosa and Quinn Lima double team Moises Arroyo of Napa Valley College on their way to a 2-1 win last month.

Photo by Lisa James / Napa Valley Register


“ If we do get the ball to the players, we have about five or six guys that are true playmakers. And if we play quickly and get away from the more physical teams, then we tend to have quite a bit of success.”

– Ben Studholme, head coach


Sports / A&E

‘Physical Graffiti’ staged at James Dunn Theater

The College of Marin hosted a two-week run earlier this month of “Physical Graffiti,” a dance concert,

featuring guest performances from the San Domenico Dance Ensemble, Branson Dance Performance Ensemble, and the Primus Ballet Theatre, the concert was a stylistically diverse showcase of young and upcoming talent in the Marin dance scene. It was an opportunity for students of COM’s performing arts department to participate in a live show, and to network with other local dancers.

The concert was held in the James Dunn Theatre on the Kentfield campus, and ran for four nights. The first and second nights featured guest performances from Branson and Primus, with the third and fourth nights featuring San Domenico with Primus.

Directed by Georgia Ortega, the Branson Ensemble performed three dances. The last dance, Sixth Sense, was an excerpt from Perception of the Senses. The dance will be presented in February 2014 at Branson School’s annual Body Talk dance concert.

“It was a very fun show. Very energetic and youthful,” said Kentfield resident Debra Ward.

The San Domenico Dance Ensemble was joined by Domenico’s Advanced Vocal Ensemble for their single performance, Freedom. Directed by Lily Kane, it stood out from all the other performances of the night.

Pre-recorded music was used in every routine on every night, except during Freedom, where the Vocal Ensemble provided the aural backdrop. The Primus Ballet Theatre performed every night

of the concert. Choreographed by Cole Companion, Allegory of the Cave is based on Plato’s epynomous story. The allegory is told in the form of a conversation between his Brother, Glaucon, and his mentor Socrates. It is one of the most studied pieces of Plato’s most well-known work, The Republic.

“I’ve always wanted to do the Platonic works,” said Companion.” I’ve become obsessed with the idea of imperial thinking and objective reality, and as a result of that, Socrates always comes to mind. I read The Republic to prepare.”

Every night was opened with COM dance instructor Alan Scofield’s Flock Logic, a mercurial routine that switched repeatedly between heady interpretive chaos and synchronous calm. Hip-hop and Jazz dance instructor David Alonzo Jones choreographed two shows for the concert. Let the Groove In, a routine set to Justin Timberlake’s song of the same name, and Big Spender, a sizzling 1920’s burlesque set to Dorothy Field’s Sweet Charity that set fire to the theatre.

Intermission was proceeded by Bereft, choreographed by Sandra Tanner. Dedicated to her mother, it is an attempt to “honor the memory of our relatives who perished at the hands of Hitler’s Third Reich.” It was a somber performance telling the story of a mother, father, their three girls, and the breaking apart of their family by war.

“I was really touched. It was very sad, I almost cried,” said theatre patron Caroline Reynolds.

The concert concluded with Kristi Kuhn and COM ballet students. Set to Vivaldi’s La Folia, A Gathering was a flowing blue river of dancers featuring the pas de deux of Cammy Schinner and Christopher DiViase.

ECHO TIMES

By Kyle Dang

Photo courtesy of Kristi Kuhn

Jenner Musser, one of the dancers in “Physical Graffiti,” performs a striking Arabesque move.

Despite small roster, women’s volleyball endures

It has been a tough season for the College of Marin women’s volleyball team,

which wrapped up a 5-11 conference record.

“The beginning was rough, it’s been an up and down kind of year, but it has gotten better,” said head coach Lindsay Bacigalupi.

The team won five games and lost eleven in conference. Overall they went 5-19. They have played more tournaments than usual this year, giving them a lot of playing experience.

The volleyball team, which has yet to win their first championship, has consistently placed fourth in the conference for three of the four seasons that Bacigalupi has been coaching.

“We seem to beat the teams we’re

supposed to beat and play hard against the better teams without beating them,” she said.

Bacigalupi, who has been coaching since she was 19, played Division 1 out of high school at Cal State Fullerton, and Division 1 and 2 at Sonoma State.

She has also coached high school teams and at the club level.

With a mostly freshman team, Coach Bacigalupis’ goal was to give her team playing time so they could develop their skills.

“We are a very young team,” she said. “We have nine brand new players, so we’re a little inexperienced. But they work very hard and really want to be good. It’s kind of a rebuilding year for us.”

Christina Thermidor, who played center on COM’s basketball team, made the transition to volleyball this season. At 5-foot-11, she’s the tallest player on the

team. “I played volleyball in high school

and I really missed it,” Thermidor told the Marin Independent Journal. “I came to College of Marin to play basketball.

Volleyball wasn’t on my mind. But in the offseason, I realized I was missing it. ”

Although the team has had a lot of turnover, they have “played really well, but not to [their] potential,” said Bacigalupi.

ECHO TIMES

By Rachel Mouton


Stephanie Nava, Diana Patrick, Annie Cockcroft, Christina Thermidor, Ashley Hernandez, Nora Divjak, and Makena Guasco (not pictured) played against the odds with a small roster.


Features

Adjunct faculty are always on the move

Some part-time community college teachers drive themselves crazy. In order to pay the bills, they work

several jobs at numerous colleges and campuses scattered around the Bay Area. They call themselves “Freeway Flyers.” They sometimes drive more than 100 miles a day getting to and from classes –hours that could be better spent preparing for class, grading papers, and counseling students. Formally they are known as part-time or adjunct faculty.

There are many challenges associated with commuting four hours a day between classes, not the least of which are the logistics of getting to each college. They often arrive in a sweat, carrying their file boxes, instructional materials, and textbooks.

“One of the biggest challenges of teaching at multiple colleges was making it work logistically,” said David King, an English instructor at College of Marin, and former freeway flyer.

“Scheduling was especially difficult because, as a newer faculty member at each institution, I had little to no say in the classes I was offered or the days and times I would teach them.”

One major challenge associated with being a part-timer is qualifying for benefits. Unlike full-time faculty, part timer’s only receive medical benefits if they teach more than 50 percent of a full-time workload.

Many part-timers are not eligible for CALSTRS’ pension plan. In addition, they are laid off at the end of each semester. Consequently, many of them have to go on unemployment during summer and winter school breaks. Although they are often rehired at the beginning of each semester, there is no guarantee. It depends on enrollment.

Familiarizing themselves with every campus is also a challenge. Even something as simple as getting their e-mail can be problematic when each school has its own communications system and web portals.

“Each college has its own local procedures and idiosyncrasies too, from

basics like copying and office supplies to more significant differences like course content and expectations for students,” says King.

“This resulted in a lot of scrambling to figure out how things work in each college. I often felt fragmented.”

Even after successfully navigating freeways and cities to get to a college campus, they must adapt to different college cultures, facilities, procedures, and technological infrastructures.

While one college’s deadline for submitting grades is midnight, another might be noon the same day.

Getting WiFi and Ethernet access for themselves and their students can also be time-consuming and problematic.

If they’ve prepared a Powerpoint lecture with internet links and they don’t have access to a smart classroom their lesson plan gets compromised.

Adjunct faculty comprise more than 50 percent of COM’s teaching staff. The reason is obvious: It’s sometimes cheaper to hire part-timers.

There are some 46,000 non-tenure track faculty in California’s community college system.

“More colleges and universities are relying on such “contingent faculty” –people they can easily lay off – as a less expensive alternative to degree-laden, tenured professors,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2011.

“The worst part is the insecurity,” one part-timer told the Chronicle. “You

don’t know from one semester to the next whether you’ll have a job or not. I was afraid to turn anything down.”

By the end of this year, College of Marin will have hired 44 new full-time professors since December 2010, when COM President David Wain Coon was hired. That will represent 36 percent of the full-time faculty. Twenty-two of those positions were created by converting part-time into full-time positions. Twenty-three vacancies occurred as a result of the Supplemental Employee Retirement

Program implemented last year. Once hiring is completed for this year, Coon intends to evaluate the possibility of converting additional part-time units to full-time positions.

There can be drawbacks to students when a college has too many part-time faculty. Getting in contact with freeway flyers can be a difficult. They usually don’t have office phones, and sometimes don’t answer school e-mail promptly. Occasionally, their office hours are not posted on the COM website. Some, though, drive great distances on their own time to meet with students.

Cliff Nelson, an Adjunct Math Professor, teaches classes at Santa Rosa Junior College and College of Marin on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He commutes an hour and fifteen minutes one way in a small car, which causes him back pain.

At COM his parking permit is free, though, and he is allowed to park in any lot. At SRJC he has to buy a parking permit, and often struggles to find parking.

Even though part-time professors struggle, they are valued by the College of Marin. They bring their real-life experience and expertise to the classroom.

“We could not do what we do without our valued part-timers,” says Coon.

ECHO TIMES

By Leslie Lee and R.J. Heckelman

Photo courtesy of Wallpoper.com

Photo by R.J. Heckelman

Part-time faculty often commute between several campuses throughout the Bay Area to teach their courses, which adds to the number of hours they put into a workday.

You can identify adjunct faculty by the number of school parking stickers on their windshield. Their cars are usually loaded with file boxes, laptop computer, briefcase, change of clothes, and jumper cables.

CalendarEvents

Symphonic Band ConcertWalter Mikolajcik, director The Symphonic Band will be performing concert band works including: Clifton Williams The Sinfonians; Pineapple Poll by Sullivan; La Marcha de Zacateca; Leroy Anderson’s Trumpeter’s Lullaby; Marsch by Carl Teike; the College of Marin premiere of The Newfoundland Deception by Adrian L. Quince; Quarter to Nine medley; Amparito Roca Spanish March composed by Jaime Texido; 42nd Street by Harry Warren; and Christmas music by Alfred Reed and Leroy Anderson.When: December 4Where: James Dunn Theatre, Performing Arts Building, KentfieldAdmission: Free- donations welcome!

Jazz Ensemble ConcertCayce Carnahan, director; Tommy Igoe Big Band, special guestsTommy Igoe is one of the world’s finest drummers and his big band is an elite group of the Bay’s greatest musicians in a landmark event that redefines the genre. Musicians from Santana, The Doobie Brothers, Boz Scaggs, and Bay-Area legends Tower of Power are all featured; as well as music from Brazil, Cuba, Argentina, Spain, and more. If you love music, the Tommy Igoe Big Band will blow you away. When: December 5, 7:30 p.m.Where: James Dunn Theatre, Performing Arts Building, KentfieldAdmission: Free- donations welcome!

The Importance of Being EarnestBy Oscar Wilde; director: Lisa MorseThe high farce and witty dialogue have helped make this one of Wilde’s most enduringly popular and frequently performed plays. A giddy round of “manufactured” mistaken identities, lost relatives, misplaced affections and questionable respectability, “The Importance of Being Earnest” pokes delicious fun at all strata of Victorian society. The humor is as fresh and pertinent today as when it was first performed in 1895.When: December 5, 6: 8 p.m.; December 7, 8: 2 p.m., 8 p.m.Where: COM Studio Theatre, Performing Arts Building KentfieldAdmission: Pay what you will: December 5All other shows: $20 general, $15 seniors, $10 staff, students, and alumni

Club Mud Pottery SaleCollege pottery students and instructors have created beautiful items for every purpose and budget for the holiday sale. All proceeds go to benefit the Ceramics Program. For more info, contact Jason Dunn at (415) 485-9471.


COM Men’s Basketball vs. ColumbiaWhen: December 7, time TBAWhere: Columbia

COM Men’s Basketball vs. Skyline TournamentWhen: December 13-15, time TBAWhere: Skyline

COM Women’s Basketball vs. ShastaWhen: November 30, 4 p.m.Where: Shasta

COM Women’s Basketball vs. MontereyWhen: December 6, 6 p.m.Where: Kentfield

COM Women’s Basketball vs. Allan Hancock TournamentWhen: December 12-14, time TBAWhere: Santa Maria

Women’s Basketball

Dates to RememberHoliday, Campuses closed: November 28 - December 1

Deadline to submit an International Student Application for Spring 2014: November 29

Last Day of classes before Final Exams: December 13

Men’s Basketball

When: December 5 - 7, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Where: Ceramics Studio, Fine Arts Building, Room 131

Jazz Ensemble at the SeahorseGreat music, great food, and great atmosphere. Bring your dancing shoes!!!When: December 9, 7 - 9 p.m.Where: Sausalito Seahorse, 305 Harbor Dr.

COM Symphony OrchestraJessica Ivry, director; Joanna Pinckney, guest conductor; Alex Kelly and Jessica Ivry, cello soloistsThe College of Marin Orchestra will perform dramatic and enchanting music from the Baroque to the late Romantic era. The orchestra will perform the Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 7 by Strauss followed by Vivaldi’s G minor Double Cello Concerto. The concert will end with the emotional and rousing Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 by Tchaikovsky. When: December 7, 7:30 p.m.; December 8, 4 p.m. (location: TBA)Where: James Dunn Theatre, Performing Arts Building, KentfieldAdmission: Free - Donations welcome!

Advanced Voice Recital – The Songs of Richard Rodgers Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) was an American composer of more than 900 songs and 43 Broadway musicals. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal. Unlike some more contemporary musicals, these are meant to be sung in a more classical style, and we are delighted to be able to perform these for you. When: December 8, 3 p.m.Where: The Tamalpais Retirement Community, 501 Via Casitas, Greenbrae

Think you got what it takes to be a journalist? Then add your voice to the

Echo Times next semester!JOUN 115 - Reporting/Writing for Mainstream Media

JOUN 122 / 123- Newspaper & Media Production

Visit LC32 or www.marin.edu for more info

Documents

Echo Times / Nov. 26, 2013