Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

It's housing, stupid

It seems my place of employment is not the only education system in dire financial straits. The San Francisco United School District (SFSUD) is facing a budget cliff as well. There’s been talks of school closures this year, but election season sort of put a kibosh on that. Now that the election is over, and the math remains terrible, I don’t see how they can avoid contracting the number of campuses.

SFUSD has the same problem as SFSU: a massive decline in enrollment. Funding from California is tied to pupil count, so less students, less operating budget. Hard decisions will have to be made. San Francisco State will be laying off lecturers and cutting courses come the Spring semester. I can tell you the atmosphere on campus is rather bleak these days.

I think this issue ties back to housing, or the lack thereof. How can you expect a thriving K-12 student population when the working-class cannot afford to live in San Francisco? It’s financially difficult to start a family here if you’re not of the upper crust working in tech or finance. People of those means are more likely to send their children to private school, exacerbating the enrollment problem. Public education needs a robust working-class to support it. San Francisco must build way more housing, driving down home and rental prices, to sustain said working-class.

Until that happens, SFSU must build way more student housing so students can actually afford to attend. The university isn’t renowned for anything in particular, so San Francisco becomes the de-facto draw. Tuition is expensive enough as is; it’s a tough ask to then add on one of the highest cost of living in the country. Never mind the retail crime, homelessness, and fentanyl crisis that gets shown on television.

I believe solving the cost of putting a roof over your head is the main lever to pull here.

Stock up, stock down

San Francisco is seeing the first big rain storm of the season. I am somewhat regretting not replacing the tires on my BMW M2 before this. The stock Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires are on the final few thousand miles of usable life. (Current mileage of the M2 is 20,214.) These high performance summer tires are not the best in the rain when new, so it’s downright sketchy when the grooves are worn down. I’m definitely not turning on the performance modes in these wet conditions.

The reason I haven’t yet replace the tires is because I am cheap. I want to delay the inevitable $1,500 charge to replace all four for as long as possible. That doesn’t mean I’m avoiding driving; like a good Chinese immigrant I simply wish to maximize the usage out of a product. I paid for the tires, did I not, in the original purchase price of the BMW? This is the equivalent of adding water to a near empty shampoo bottle in order to use every last bit of it.

The reason I’m being so unreasonably stingy (I don’t make bad money) is because our workplace is facing a fiscal crisis. While I am confident in my abilities and what I contribute to the job, I simply do not have the seniority years to feel completely secure. In the event layoffs do happen, and I am affected, I want to be fully financially prepared. That means stashing away money and squeezing out the utility of things I already have. Black Friday shopping for the dopamine hit will not be in my vocabulary.

Just because a university is a non-profit doesn’t mean no profits. Students pay tuition, staff and faculty have to earn a living. You can’t idealize your way out of hard numbers, especially when cuts have to be made. Under-utilized classes should be the first to go.

In turn, Universities should lean on majors that are popular. For as long as I’ve been at San Francisco State (since 2007), nursing is an impacted program. Meaning: demand outstrips supply. Why does this remain so? The nursing major should have expanded to accommodate the demand long ago. Leverage the popularity and competence to make SF State a known destination for nursing (and whichever other in-demand programs). Give the students what they want!

Capitalism is not without faults. So long as that’s the system we are in, that’s the system we have to work around.

A few to remember with

Spring graduation is the best time of the year to be around campus. There’s so many graduates roaming about in their caps and gowns, capturing graduation photos to remember. Shoutout to the budding photographers following these graduates around. I guess in a world of smartphones capable enough to capture the moon (Samsung fakes it, apparently), the value of a “proper” camera is still pretty evident. For a once in a lifetime thing, you’re not handing off your iPhone to a cousin to do the job.

You wouldn’t hire a wedding photographer that shoots with smartphones, right? (Or maybe you should…)

It’s good to see the pro-Palestine protest camping has come to an end, after reaching an agreement with the university. Before this, some of the protesters defaced the San Francisco State University signage at the corner of 19th Avenue and Holloway. This tiny monument thing is where graduates like to take pictures in front of (during graduation week there can be lines). How awful it is then to have that beautiful scene ruined by graffiti. Though I guess any good photographer can photoshop that out (or those A.I. magic erasers in Android smartphones). Moot point: the markings have since been painted over.

I wonder what is the popular photographic aesthetic these days, vis a vis these graduation photos. If I had to guess: retro is definitely in. Technical perfection is out of style. People buy older iPhones to take pictures with, simply for the “vintage” look (modern iPhones do over-process the image, I have to say). Fujifilm absolutely cannot make enough X100VI to keep up with demand, because the TikTok/Instagram crowd has hyped its film simulation to the sky. Heck, I bought a Fujifilm X-T5 because I wanted the retro film vibes.

Photographer: “What picture style would you like?”
Client: “I would like the photos to be slightly shitty.”

Camping club

San Francisco State University is not immune to the pro-Palestine protests that’s been going around American college campuses. You expect nothing less in a bastion city of liberalism. (Except when it comes to building housing. On that we are conservative as heck!) Protesters have been camping on the SFSU campus lawns since last Wednesday. One question I do have: how do we know some of them aren’t actual homeless people looking to shack up for a time, undisturbed?

Whatever the endgame is, I hope it doesn’t turn violent like it has in Columbia University and UCLA. Protest in CSU Humboldt caused the remainder of the Spring semester to go virtual. What a freaking waste! Imagine surviving through the worst pandemic of ours lives (god willing), enduring years of online classes, only to have to do it all again. I’d be pissed if I paid full price tuition. All because some people thought camping on university grounds is an effective way to make a difference for two countries situated on the other side of the globe.

But more power to them - so long as things stay chill and peaceful. SFSU is a public university, so First Amendment rights are paramount. I am sure the same grace will be allotted to groups whose messages are not so majorly supported by the campus community. (Shoutout to the Bible-thumper guy who comes to SFSU from time to time, calling every passerby sinners and adulterers.) It was only a year ago when Riley Gaines was nearly chased away from making a speech.

Because universities should be a place for exchange of ideas. A coliseum for verbal jousting between those ideas. It’s a tremendous disservice if during a student’s four years of college that they never once hear something they strongly disagree with. That’s how you get people who got mental breakdowns when Trump was elected in 2016. The 2024 presidential election is rubbing its hands in anticipation.

Nah, we just hate you

It’s always interesting to hear from new faculty members about “how it was” back at the university they used to work. Of course, this line of comment is typically accompanied with them complaining they’re not getting the same treatment here at San Francisco State University. To which I have to say they need to realize that our university is the second tier of the California public university system. We are not a UC. We’re not even a Polytechnic. Resources and support around here might not be as ample as that private institution they were at previously.

Besides, if their previous institution is so great in comparison, why the French did they leave in the first place? Let’s not forget: they applied for their faculty positions. That means they wanted to come to San Francisco State University. Perhaps some due diligence was missing if the quantity and quality of available resources (IT or otherwise) is proving insufficient. But hey, I get it: they’re probably getting paid more now than their old positions. It’s all about the money.

What really irks me is when certain new faculty get personal with it. As if our inability to fulfill their computing wants is a direct affront to their personhood. Right, because when the California Sate University system mandates certain requirements vis a vis computer security, it’s specifically targeting you. Same with us: we’re declining your request to dual-boot Windows and Linux because we hate you. Just you, not anyone else. (Obviously, my tongue is fully in cheek here.) Asking for my supervisor? Sure, I guess you like to be told the same thing twice by two different people.

As Michael Corleone famously says in The Godfather: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.”

Shopping spree

Black Friday for our local Target store is not the Friday of Thanksgiving. Rather, it’s the weekend of move-in day before the start of Fall semester at nearby San Francisco State University. The horde of freshmen, with their family in tow (keepers of the credit card, obviously), attacking the shelves for their everyday dorm-life needs. That includes a SodaStream for one guy, and a whole vacuum cleaner for another person. The latter of whom is a guy I very much personality align with. A dirty room is simply unacceptable.

Whilst witnessing the purchasing madness going on (I was going to the Whole Foods at the same mall), I thought to myself, “Gee, I hope the crew at Target knew to stock up for this occasion!” “What if everyone wanted a coffee maker?” You see, our Target is not as big as the typical one. Under normal operation there is no way it can handle thousands of freshmen moving in and buying stuff. Heck, I can still remember going there not too long ago and was unable to buy the particular socks I wear. Not in stock.

The manager of that Target should be fired if the store were ill-prepared for Fall move-in day.

Seeing countless SUVs lining up towards the dorms with the entirety of a student’s living needs is a reminder that summer is almost over. I don’t know, it sure felt like a quick one to me. Work-wise it’s been bit of a lull since June, honestly. I am actually looking forward to having jam-packed days of action, and a bustling campus full of students and staff. The 2023-2024 school year is the first one since the official end of the pandemic, (Federal COVID emergency declaration ended in May of this year) so I am wondering if the campus can return to its former glory of packed buildings and halls.

Like back when I went to school at SFSU in the late aughts.

Stay off the weed

You know it’s nearing finals when the frequency of false fire alarms at the university library is increasing. These stressed kids are smoking joints to relieve the tension. Sadly for them, the library’s smoke detectors are sensitive and automatic. Students think it’s okay to take a few drags in the bathroom (and it’s almost always the bathroom) and then next thing later the whole building is evacuating. No gripes from me, however: I can use the walk outside from actually working.

Also during work yesterday I attended - via Zoom - my best friend’s dissertation defense. It’s kind of wild to do one of these things virtually, but it had to be done since one of his advisors is still working remotely (must be nice, says me who now goes to campus the full five days). That said, the ease of logging into Zoom meant people could attend without having to travel. It was nice to see basically the entire friend group taking time out of their workday to be there for our soon-to-be doctor. And congratulations, he is officially a doctor now!

Just not the kind that resuscitate people during medical emergencies. He should remained seated when they ask if there’s a doctor on a plane.

It’s getting to my favorite time of the year working on a campus: graduation season. Coming out of the pandemic I reckon this will be the first year that ceremonies big and small will return live on campus. Back in the day when I did AV support for some of the events, I always got tremendous joy seeing the students attain their degrees after years of hard work (and play, let’s be honest). It’s the culmination, the finality, and opening the door to the next stage, that’s so rewarding to see.

Looking forward to my best friend’s ceremony in about two weeks’ time.