Latest news with #SanFranciscoStateUniversity
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Anonymous benefactor helps SFUSD open new Mandarin immersion school
An anonymous benefactor will help spur San Francisco public schools to expand Chinese language programs in the district, including the opening of a new Mandarin immersion school for students in the fall of 2027, district officials announced Wednesday. The school will serve kindergarten through eighth grade students, with the location to be determined down the road, Superintendent Maria Su said. 'The desire to strengthen SFUSD's language program offerings is something I've consistently heard from families,' Su told the Chronicle. 'It's clear that multilingual education is a top priority for our community.' Before the school can open, the first priority is creating a Chinese bilingual teacher pipeline to support Mandarin and Cantonese language programs to ensure there are certified educators ready to step into all the district's immersion classrooms, Su told the Chronicle. Currently, there are only a few hundred bilingual Chinese language teachers qualified to teach in California, she added, and the district will be working with San Francisco State University and with existing district staff to help boost those numbers and ensure there are qualified educators well into the future. 'I am thrilled to take SFUSD's multilingual education to the next level, starting with our Chinese language immersion programs,' Su said in a statement. 'This plan will build on a strong foundation to cultivate the next generation of bilingual teachers and expand our language programs so that every SFUSD student has the skills to unlock opportunities no matter where they are in the world.' Su said she will be expanding and strengthening the language programs 'in partnership with families, not for families.' 'This has to reflect the voices, values and strength of the families we're serving,' she said. Former San Francisco principal Liana Szeto, who opened the first Chinese immersion public school in the country, will head up the effort as Su's special advisor to create the new school, officials said. The benefactor's funding will pay for Szeto's contract, which is the only cost so far associated with the effort. District officials did not disclose how much the donor was contributing to the plan overall. Szeto opened Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in 2000 and served as its principal until this year, when she retired. She will start in the district role in January. A wide body of research has shown that non-English language immersion enables students to achieve a high level of proficiency in another language while performing on par with or better than peers in English and math. Alice Fong Yu students have consistently outperformed the district and state in English and math, according to state data. Currently, only three SFUSD schools offer Mandarin immersion programs, with just 66 seats in the incoming Mandarin immersion kindergarten classes at Starr King and Jose Ortega elementary schools, about two-thirds of which are reserved for proficient speakers. Every grade at those two schools has a long waiting list for the upcoming school year. SFUSD parents have said that's far from enough in a city where 22% of residents are Chinese and where Chinese languages are by far the most widely spoken after English. Another four elementary schools offer Cantonese immersion programs, with additional dual language programs in Spanish and Korean. The announcement of the pending new district school comes less than two weeks before a scheduled school board vote on a petition to open a Chinese immersion charter school in San Francisco, a grassroots effort by parents frustrated at the lack of Mandarin immersion seats in district schools. The proposed charter, Dragon Gate Academy, would also be a K-8 Mandarin immersion public school, with almost 200 parents and teachers already expressing interest, organizers said. District officials said they were prepared to follow the legal process related to the charter application. 'We're deeply grateful to the benefactor whose generosity is providing the resources to help us turn this shared vision into reality,' Su said. 'At the same time, we remain fully committed to providing all charter school petitioners with a fair, thorough, and impartial review process, as outlined in California Education Code.'
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Harvey would say, we're on the brink': why conservatives are coming for a gay rights hero
As San Francisco's pride festivities came to a close last week, a cloud hung over the otherwise joyful celebrations as the city's LGBTQ+ community learned that the US government had stripped a naval ship of its name honoring the gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. Donald Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, claimed the action showed the administration's commitment to 'taking the politics' out of military naming conventions. San Francisco's queer community saw things differently. For many, the move was yet another example of Trump taking a swipe at progressive values. To others, the decision to remove Milk's name from the frigate represented something more sinister: an intention, on the part of an emboldened administration, to take the LGBTQ+ community out of public view and to strike their accomplishments from the historical record. It's blatant malice. They want to erase us and eradicate our history like we don't exist Eric Berchtold 'On its own, it is not the most significant offense that we've witnessed in the past six months,' said Marc Stein, a professor of history at San Francisco State University who researches sexuality and politics. 'But when combined with so many other things, it sends a powerful message.' Hegseth's announcement is the latest attack on Milk's legacy from conservatives in California and on the national stage. In 2023, the southern California city of Temecula made news when its school board attempted to remove references to Milk from elementary school textbooks. Before that, it was revealed that Tucker Carlson, while a college student, had apparently been connected to a society celebrating Milk's murderer. Related: 'Accelerated censorship': advocates criticize US supreme court ruling on LGBTQ+ books Since Trump took office, the rollback of LGBTQ+ rights and visibility has only accelerated, from a directive to purge the military of transgender service members, to a supreme court decision allowing K-12 students to opt out of reading materials with LGBTQ+ themes. Taken together, LGBTQ+ advocates and community members fear that much of the progress made to secure their rights since Milk's assassination in 1978 is in peril. 'The renaming of the ship is part of a broader pattern wherein the Trump administration and its allies are trying to roll back the advances of the last several decades,' said Stein. At the Cinch Saloon, a historic gay bar in San Francisco's Castro district, June's Pride month celebrations were held against a backdrop of conversations about the fate of the community. Bartender Eric Berchtold expressed fear that the administration is working up to rescind the right to same-sex marriage. 'It's blatant malice,' Berchtold said. 'They want to erase us and eradicate our history like we don't exist.' Suzanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, said that fears of rolling back progress have been felt most acutely by older members of the community who were part of the gay liberation movement in the 1960s and 70s. Among those affected people are Cleve Jones, an activist and friend of Milk's who worked in Milk's office when he was city supervisor. 'I can remember when we were criminalized, when we were routinely beaten and fired, when you could not have a job if you were known to be gay,' said Jones. When Milk was elected as city supervisor in 1977, he was the country's first openly gay politician. Two decades prior, he had been forced to resign from the navy due to his sexuality. That's why publicly displaying Milk's name on a military vessel represents much more than a public gesture, explained Craig Loftin, professor of American studies at California State University, Fullerton and a scholar of LGBTQ+ history. 'In the big-picture history of LGBTQ people, the quest for public visibility and recognition is at the core and center of that narrative,' he said. '[Milk] was a leader in this idea of not hiding in the shadows.' That isn't to say that the quest for gay liberation has been linear. While the gay liberation movement made enormous strides on the fronts of decriminalization and visibility in the 1960s and 70s, the rise of the religious right as a powerful political bloc in the 80s paused progress. That coincided with the onset of the Aids pandemic, which devastated gay communities across the country – nowhere more acutely than in San Francisco. In response to silence on the part of the federal government and the Reagan administration, a new wave of activism was spurred that demanded research into treatment and condemned homophobic discrimination. 'It's waxed and waned,' said Loftin. 'It took several years before we had activist groups like Aact Up channeling their rage in a strategic, focused way that yielded significant results and moved gay culture further than where it had been,' Loftin said. In the decades that followed, the community saw same-sex marriage legalized, the military's 'Don't ask don't tell' policy repealed, and, most recently, a surge of visibility for trans Americans. 'There is a pendulum quality to a lot of history, but especially LGBT history.' Knowing this, Loftin is hopeful that the community will come together and fight back with vigor. 'My optimistic thought is that because they're hitting us so hard and so fast, the pendulum will swing back the other direction, hopefully harder and faster,' he said. '[Trump] is awakening a dragon.' Berchtold, the Cinch Saloon bartender, said he saw a lot more activism among patrons today than he did when he started working at the bar 22 years ago. Jones is more fearful. To him, there is a gulf between an older generation that remembers the traumas of past decades, and a younger cohort that takes the advances for granted. 'Younger ones never watched everyone they knew die,' said Jones. 'I carry those memories with me as I interact daily with young people who are completely oblivious to that reality.' To Stein and others, what is most jarring about the renaming of USNS Harvey Milk is that it lifts the veil on which groups the administration plans to target. Until now, policy decisions have primarily focused on restricting the rights of trans Americans – which advocates say has had the effect of making cisgender members of the LGBTQ+ community complacent. 'It is a lie that the administration is only going after trans people,' said Stein. 'They are especially targeting trans people … but [cis] gay and lesbian people should not feel like they are going to be safe from what's happening.' Jones echoed: 'There is a significant number of gay and lesbian men and women who may think this is going to stop with trans people. That's just foolishness.' Advocates and scholars also see attacks on the LGBTQ+ community as connected to the administration's larger ambitions to curb civil liberties, including those of women and immigrants. 'There is going to be great variation depending on … where you live,' said Stein, drawing a thread between disparities in access to gender-affirming care, abortion rights and immigrant protections. 'Those of us who are in San Francisco and California are protected in some respects from the worst of what's going on, but we also live in a nation with a powerful federal government. 'Everything is very fragile at this moment,' added Ford. 'You can't take for granted that they're not going to try to take your rights.' Jones says that if he were alive today, Harvey Milk would agree. A Jewish American who came of age during the second world war, he would have seen the government's actions as indicative of an unhealthy democracy and sounded the alarm. 'He would say, 'Watch out. We are on the brink. It is happening again. It is unfolding all around us.''
Axios
19-06-2025
- Health
- Axios
Tick season is here — and it's worse than last year
Summer is here, and that means tick frenzy is, too. Why it matters: Ticks, which are most active in warmer seasons, transmit Lyme disease through bacteria in their bite. The disease causes rash, flu-like symptoms and joint pain — and can be fatal if untreated. Driving the news: Tick densities on average are higher this year compared with last year, San Francisco State University biology professor Andrea Swei told Axios. At Swei's field sites in Marin and San Mateo counties, average nymph densities are up around 20% to 30% this year. Nymphs transmit diseases at higher rates than adult ticks. The Bay Area Lyme Foundation has recorded a similar increase in regional tick activity, particularly in chaparral areas, local parks and redwood forests. Zoom in: On the West Coast, Lyme is spread by the Western black-legged tick, which has a three-year life cycle and is abundant along California's north coastal areas, according to Swei. Caveat: While ticks are traditionally associated with grassy areas and bushes, a 2021 study found Lyme-carrying ticks in beach areas at equal rates to woodland habitats in some parts of northwestern California. What they're saying: When outdoors, "we recommend wearing white so the ticks are more visible, tick-checking yourself and your gear when you arrive home and two days later, and being vigilant to see a doctor if you have any symptoms," Bay Area Lyme Foundation executive director Linda Giampa told Axios via email. They often first attach to pets. You can also treat clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin as a preventative measure, per the CDC. What to expect: If you find a tick attached to your body, the best way to remove it is to position tweezers between your skin and the tick's mouth and tug gently to remove the whole thing. Don't squish it; flush it down the toilet. Ticks can spread disease within hours of attaching to a person.
New York Times
14-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What International Students Bring to Campuses
To the Editor: In 'U.S. Schools' Reliance on Overseas Students Hurts Americans' (Opinion guest essay, June 3), David A. Bell understandably writes from his position at Princeton. I offer a perspective from a state teaching university that also does considerable research. International students help give first-generation-to-college students at San Francisco State University and similar institutions some hope of competing in a world dominated by graduates of the Ivy League. They offer perspectives otherwise missing from class discussions and the opportunity to build global networks. They encourage students who have never left the Bay Area to study abroad and serve as a bridge between exchange students and the campus. Unlike the highly selective schools Dr. Bell writes about, less prestigious universities have suffered enrollment declines. International students fill out our classes with bright, well-prepared learners as we regain our balance after a series of shocks to the system. Notably, many — though not all — of our international students study on scholarships from their governments and come from families who struggle, as our American students do. Opportunities for international students to study in the United States bring more opportunities for the vast majority of U.S. college students who do not study at Princeton or other elite universities. Juanita DarlingSan FranciscoThe writer is a professor of international relations at San Francisco State University. To the Editor: The growing concern about elite colleges prioritizing wealthy international students over qualified domestic applicants hits close to home for our family. Last year, our son — an academically strong student with global experience — applied to several top-tier universities. Despite his credentials, he was rejected from all. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
NDTV
10-06-2025
- NDTV
Nicole Daedone: Wellness Firm CEO Guilty Of Forcing Employees Into Sex Acts
Nicole Daedone, the founder and CEO of the controversial sexual wellness brand OneTaste, was convicted on Monday by a New York jury of conspiracy to commit forced labour. Alongside her, Rachel Cherwitz, the former head of sales and Daedone's close aide, was also found guilty. Jurors sided with prosecutors who alleged that Daedone and Cherwitz manipulated vulnerable members and employees into unpaid labour and forced sexual acts under the guise of "healing" and "empowerment." Brooklyn US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr called the duo "grifters who preyed on vulnerable victims, by making empty promises of sexual empowerment and wellness only to manipulate them into performing labour and services" for their benefit. OneTaste, started in San Francisco in 2004, claimed to be a sexual wellness brand offering expensive retreats and courses. But prosecutors said it was actually run like a cult, where people were forced to work without pay and take part in sexual acts. Who Is Nicole Daedone? Nicole Daedone was born in Los Gatos, California. She was raised by a single mother. She graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in gender communications and semantics from San Francisco State University. After college, she opened an art gallery, worked as a waitress, and briefly as a stripper and escort, she told The Times. She studied yoga and Zen meditation. She lived for two years at 'The Welcomed Consensus', a group known for its focus on "gourmet sex." In 2004, Nicole Daedone co-founded OneTaste in San Francisco along with Robert Kandell. OneTaste offered expensive sexual wellness retreats and classes based on a practice called "Orgasmic Meditation", which the company trademarked. In 2012, she published her first book, Slow Sex, comparing mindful sexuality to the Slow Food movement. She later published The Eros Sutras, a multi-volume series that lays out her beliefs on sex, relationships, and justice. In 2002, Nicole Daedone co-founded Unconditional Freedom, a nonprofit that helps inmates through meditation and writing programmes. In 2015, OneTaste paid $325,000 to settle a labour dispute with a former employee, raising early red flags. In 2018, a Bloomberg expose revealed deeper allegations of abuse and misconduct. That same year, the FBI began investigating the company for sex trafficking, prostitution, and labour violations. By the end of 2018, OneTaste shut down all in-person classes and US offices. In June 2023, Nicole Daedone was indicted for forced labour conspiracy. Her trial began in May, and she was found guilty on June 10. She faces up to 20 years in prison, with sentencing set for September 26. Nicole Daedone was featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste.
