Assignment: Cause and Effect Essay

Students at UC Berkeley protest budget cuts in 2009

California is currently in the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis. In 2011, higher education in California is again expected to absorb grave funding cuts. In recent years, the state’s three high educational branches (The California State University, The University of California, and The California Community Colleges System) have lost billions of dollars in funding—with no end in sight. In this year’s budget, Governor Brown is proposing an additional $1.4 billion cut in funding. If approved, this cut will have significant effects on an already stressed educational system. But, what will those effects be? What are the real-life implications of the state’s educational budget crisis in the short and long term? In a concise cause and effect essay, A) briefly define current the state of California’s education budget, and B) explore the probable effects these cuts will have on California. Cite only from any of the articles about the state budget in the eReader.

Requirements:

• MLA format, including parenthetical citation
• Cite a minimum of four texts from the eReader
• 2.5-page minimum

The best papers:

• Stay within the parameters of the subject matter
• Have a concise thesis which clearly outlines a position
• First identify the problem (e.g. the cause), and then extrapolate its implications (e.g. the effects)
• Clearly support the thesis with solid evidence and a logical structure
• Cite a minimum of four articles supporting the thesis
• Conclude with a summation of the argument
• Properly cite evidence using MLA's parenthetical citation method
• Are in MLA Style 

UPDATE:
Because the budget situation is ever-changing, here are some "hot off the press" articles you may also use in your essay:

• "California State University Puts Price on Education" (San Jose Mercury News)
• "State Community College System Faces Big Cuts" (KGTV, San Diego) 
• "The Latino Education Imperative" (The Huffington Post)
• "Budget Cuts Impact Educators" (The Valley Star)
•  "UCSD Policy Limits Community College Students" (San Diego Union-Tribune) 
• "Editorial: Ideology Holds Gun to Head of College System (Bakersfield Californian)
•  "LBCC to cut 222 Courses Next Fall" (Long Beach Press-Telegram) 
• "State Universities Face Deepening Cuts" (Today)
• "CSU to Enroll 10,000 Fewer Students Amid Budget Cuts" (San Jose Mercury News) 

Due: Mo 4.4 / Tu 4.5

Alexandra Wallace, UCLA Student, Films Racist Rant

Self-identified UCLA student Alexandra Wallace has gained national notoriety -- and more than 1,000,000 views -- for posting a YouTube video which shows her in a 3-minute long tirade against Asian students.

In the clip, called "Asians in the Library," Wallace says the "hordes of Asians" at UCLA lack American manners. She also mocks their speech and faults them for calling family in the wake of the tsunami. "I swear they're going through their whole families just checking on everybody from the tsunami thing," she said.

She continues:

All the Asian people that live in all the apartments around me...and everybody that they know that they brought along from Asia with them comes here on the weekends to do their laundry, buy their groceries, and cook their food for the week.

It's seriously without fail, you will always see old Asian people running around this apartment complex every weekend. That's what they do. They don't teach their kids to fend for themselves...

Hi. In America we do not talk on our cell phones in the library...I'll be typing away furiously, blah blah blah, and then all of the sudden, when I'm about to, like, reach an epiphany, over here from somewhere, 'OHH Ching chong ling long ting tong? OHH' 

She concludes the video by saying that "even if you're not Asian you really shouldn't be on your cell phone in the library." How diplomatic.

The Daily Bruin reports that university spokesman Phil Hampton called the video repugnant, and added that the student is inquiring into whether Wallace is enrolled as a student.

UPDATE: Wallace issued an apology Monday, saying "I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would." See more here.

Reflection 5: All Aboard?—High Speed Rail in California

In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A, which allocated $9.95 billion to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for the construction of state-wide high-speed rail (HSR) system. When completed, HSR promises to dramatically alter transportation options in the state:

• Sacramento to San Francisco: 284 miles in under 2 hours; $40 one-way
• Sacramento to Los Angeles: 412 miles in under 2.5 hours; $53 one-way
• San Francisco to Los Angeles: 432 miles in under 3 hours, $55 one-way
• San Francisco to Bakersfield: 284 miles in under 2 hours; $43 one-way
• San Francisco to San Diego: 616 miles in 4 hours; $70 one-way
• San Jose to Anaheim: 429 miles in 2.5 hours; $54 one-way
• San Jose to San Diego: 567 miles in 3.5 hours; $66 one-way
• Los Angeles to San Diego: 167 miles in under 1.5 hours; $30 one-way

Though the proposition passed, and significant state and federal funds are secured, HSR's future is still somewhat dubious. Lawsuits have been filed over everything from environmental impact reports to the placement of rail routes. Environmentalist groups have sought changes in routes to lessen the impact on sensitive areas, while transportation advocates fear HSR will draw away funds from traditional transportation systems, such as trains and buses. In the Bay Area, a coalition of peninsula interests, including the cities of Menlo Park and Atherton, have sued the state hoping to stop the project altogether, fearing, in part, that rail lines will divide their affluent neighborhoods. And, of course, the state's perpetual budget woes continue to loom over the project, set to begin construction in Central California in 2012. Californians are equally enthusiastic and pessimistic about the project. They are delighted at the prospects of traveling so quickly and efficiently, yet they lack faith in Sacramento to complete such a massive endeavor. How does HSP illustrate both everything that is right in the state and everything that is wrong? In a decade's time, do you believe this system be a reality? Why or why not?

Requirements:

• MLA format
• 2 pages minimum

Due: We 3.23 / Th 3.24

Week 8: San Jose

HP Pavilion

Do you know the way to San Jose?
I’ve been away so long.
I may go wrong and lose my way.
Do you know the way to San Jose?
I’m goin’ back to find
some peace of mind in San Jose

—Dionne Warwick, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose"

Week 8: San Jose
Mo 3.14 / Tu 3.15

Read: eR—“California's Public Colleges Face $1.4-Billion in New Budget Cuts” by Josh Keller (The Chronicle of Higher Education), “Editorial: California Voters Seem to be Clueless about the Budget” (Oakland Tribune) “Schools Still Face Deep Spending Cuts” (KCRA TV, Sacramento)
In-Class: Reading discussion; Presentations (Sec. 3: Edwin and Tommy, Sec 6: Mary, Vivienne, and Jason); Lecture—“Understanding Parenthetical Citation”

We 3.16 / Th 3.17
Read: eR—“Editorial: California Must Not Resort to Short-term Fixes” (The Highlander), “California Now 43rd in Per-student Spending” by John Fensterwald (Silicon Valley Education Foundation); “Education Cuts to Impact Future of Silicon Valley” (KGO TV, San Francisco)
In-Class: Watch—The Bridge (2007); Preview—Cause and effect essay
Due: Expository essay

Upcoming:

Week 9: Beverly Hills
Mo 3.21 / Tu 3.22
Read: ACC—p. 1 – 40; eR—“Mark Zuckerberg, Moving Fast and Breaking Things” (Business Insider); Mark Zuckerberg Interview (ABC World News with Diane Sawyer), “The Face Behind Facebook” (Oprah.com)
In-Class: Reading discussion; Presentations

We 3.23 / Th 3.24
Read: ACC—p. 41 - 84
In-Class: Reading discussion; Presentations; Lecture—“Choosing the Right Word”
Due: Cause and effect essay; Reflection 5

Japan's Quake Leads to Damage on California Coast

By Julia Prodis Sulek, Paul Rogers and Mark Gomez, San Jose Mercury News
03.12.11

Surging water generated from the powerful earthquake off Japan's coast hit the California coastline Friday morning, capsizing boats, splintering docks and panicking thousands of seaside spectators from Eureka to Santa Cruz who had expected a mild amusement but were sent scrambling to higher ground. Some picked up their boards and ran to the beach. Others paddled out farther, then rode the swelling surge to shore.
 
One person taking pictures along the Klamath River in far Northern California was swept away and was still missing Friday afternoon, while emergency crews in Oregon rescued a handful of others from the water.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday declared a state of emergency for Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. 

In the Bay Area, Santa Cruz Harbor took the worst of the tsunami; $15 million in damage was caused by two separate series of thick, rolling surges, the first about 8 a.m. and the second at 11:15 a.m. At least 30 boats broke away from moorings and several sunk, including one of two harbor patrol boats. Onlookers gasped and screamed as they tripped and stumbled up the hillsides moments before the second major surge blasted through.

"The dock, it looked like an explosion," Michael Sack, co-owner of Sanctuary Cruises, said of the harbor's U dock that was hit by the first surge. "The dock just blew up. It buckled and it splintered."

While many thrill-seekers were drawn toward the water by news reports that the tsunami was heading this way, thousands of more cautious beach-dwellers heeded evacuation advisories sent through automated calls from county emergency service agencies and headed en masse to the safety of mountaintops.

Parking lots and roadsides were jammed from Mount Madonna and the summit along Highway 17, to Skyline Boulevard through San Mateo County and the clifftops of Pacifica. Scores of people filled their cars with food and clothing, expecting the kind of devastation they had seen in movies or the apocalyptic sights from Japan on TV Friday morning.

"My main thing was to save my family," said Jose Urbina, who lives a few blocks from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. After receiving a call from a friend, he left his home at 3:15 a.m., some three hours before automated calls went out through the Beach Flats and other low-lying areas near his neighborhood. Urbina, his wife and two children were in one of hundreds of cars filling the summit parking lot along Highway 17. "Panic," he said, "was the only thing."

In Watsonville, after evacuation calls went out at 6:30 a.m., long lines of vehicles jammed gas stations and roads leading out of town. Highway 152 leading out of Watsonville and up to Mount Madonna was at a standstill early Friday morning. Children didn't show up for class at Watsonville area schools.

"We have up to 75 to 80 percent, possibly a 90 percent loss of attendance," said Brett McFadden, chief business officer at Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

Attendance also was down at Aptos-area schools, but not significantly.

In San Francisco, police shut a four-mile stretch of highway that runs along the city's western edge. Further south, several neighborhoods in Half Moon Bay on the west side of Highway 1 were evacuated and public schools in Half Moon Bay, Pacifica and Pescadero were closed Friday. 

At the Berkeley Marina, Harbormaster Ann Hardinger said at least four surges of water rushed into the harbor at about 25 mph, damaging six boat slips, breaking three docks and breaking a wooden piling.
 
"I've never seen the current so fast in all my life," Hardinger said.Some ferry services that shuttle commuters across the bay suspended operations Friday morning. Still, it was the worst tsunami damage to California since an Alaskan earthquake in 1964 triggered a tsunami that killed 17 people along the West Coast. Eleven of those deaths occurred in Crescent City, which suffered no deaths or injuries Friday but was hit by surges that destroyed boats.

In Santa Cruz, "we were just in the line of fire," Santa Cruz Port Director Lisa Ekers said of the direction, energy and flow of the tsunami. The Santa Cruz Harbor, which is home to about 850 boats, experienced "far more damage," she said, than any other harbors in the area, including Moss Landing, Monterey and Half Moon Bay.

The damage could have been far worse, she said, if her staff hadn't rushed to the harbor at 3 a.m. to tie down boats and disconnect all electricity and fuel supplies. Using megaphones in the early-morning hours, they woke up some 60 people sleeping on their boats. 

While the first series of surges caused the most damage, to the U dock as well as part of the J dock, hundreds more people had gathered along the frontage road and grassy area near the upper harbor by the time the second series hit.

"Everybody evacuate right now!" a harbor employee yelled through her megaphone as she drove up and down the waterway. "There's another big wave coming!"

That's when people scrambled up the hillsides, turning around when they heard the crunching of boats and splintering of wood. Dozens of boats, many 30 feet and longer, turned onto their sides and slammed into other boats. 

By lunchtime, the normally serene harbor reeked of diesel fuel, a colorful sheen polluted the surface and tires, and empty plastic bottles, paddles, life jackets and other debris bobbed in the water. Sections of dock 20 feet long washed out into the open ocean. An abandoned jet ski crashed up against the jetty rocks and rowboats, kayaks and other crafts were floating upside down in the harbor.

ReNae Ammon of Scotts Valley had come to the harbor to check on her 31-foot sport-fishing boat.

"You forget how powerful the ocean is," Ammon said. "You can really be at its mercy."

But Santa Cruz being Santa Cruz, laid-back surfers took to the waves despite the evacuation warnings. At the mouth of the San Lorenzo River just before 8 a.m., however, they were caught off-guard when the tide rushed out from under them. Many who had been floating on deep water just moments before suddenly found themselves standing in water just knee-deep.

Assignment: Expository Essay

The Manzanar Cemetery Monument

Answer one of the two following prompts:

A) What is the function of loyalty in Farewell to Manzanar? For example, how do characters decide who they are loyal to and when? Why is a person's loyalty of particular importance during the time of Japanese internment? Analyze issues of loyalty in Farewell to Manzanar. Cite specific evidence from the book.

B) Describe the family's relocation home of Manzanar. As portrayed in the book, what does Manzanar sound like, smell like, look like, etc.? How does it stand in contrast to other locations in the book? Explore the primary setting of Farewell to Manzanar. Cite specific evidence from the book.

Requirements:

• MLA format, including parenthetical citation
• 2.5-page minimum

The best papers:

• Stay within the parameters of the subject matter
  
• Have a concise thesis which clearly outlines a position
  
• Clearly support the thesis with solid evidence and a logical structure, citing specific passages from Farewell to Manzanar
  
• Conclude with a summation of the argument
• Properly cite evidence using MLA's parenthetical citation method
  
• Are in compliance with MLA Style

Due: We 3.16 / Th 3.17

Teen on Field Trip Survives Leap Off Golden Gate Bridge

By Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle 
03.10.11

SAN FRANCISCO -- A 17-year-old boy on a field trip with his Sonoma County high school class leaped from the Golden Gate Bridge Thursday, but survived and was able to swim to shore with a surfer who went out to rescue him, authorities said.

The boy is a junior at Windsor High School whom officials did not identify because of his age. Some students said he might have leaped to impress his classmates, but for now the California Highway Patrol is investigating the matter as an attempted suicide, said CHP Officer Chris Rardin.

The boy jumped at 11:15 a.m. from the east sidewalk near the south tower, the CHP said. He was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was expected to live.

Some witnesses said he broke his tailbone and damaged his lungs in the fall, but a Windsor Unified School District press release said he suffered no severe injuries beyond bruising and tenderness. Hospital officials said they cannot release specific information about the boy.

Surviving the fall was remarkable considering the spot the student leaped from is more than 200 feet off the water - and 99 percent of the estimated 1,500-pluspeople who have jumped from the bridge since it opened in 1937 died from the fall.

So far this year, seven people had jumped to their deaths from the bridge, officials estimate. Last year, the count was 32.

Golden Gate Bridge District spokeswoman Mary Currie said that the number of people attempting suicide off the span has grown from about 20 a year in the early 2000s to about 30 annually in the past few years.

"It could be from population growth, the economy, you name it - you just can't draw conclusions about why the numbers went up," Currie said.

The district has plans to install safety nets on the bridge, but the final design is not complete and the installation is a couple of years away at best, Currie said.

Rumors about Thursday's leap tore through the student body by conversation and social media, and the common thread was that it appeared the boy jumped of his own accord and that onlookers were upset by the experience.

"He did it to try to look cool," said one classmate, who did not want to be identified. "He said he'd jumped off bridges before." Another student who said he was on the scene tweeted that students tried to stop the boy before he leaped.

Rardin said the boy jumped as he was walking on the bridge with about 45 other students on a school field trip.

"He landed in the water, a surfer paddled out to him, and they both swam back to shore," Rardin said. "He was conscious when they came up at Fort Point.

"I've heard a bunch of things about how this happened, but we haven't come to a conclusion yet," he said. "I do know he's very lucky to be alive."