SF Green Party Community College Board Endorsement Questionnaire 2020
Due Date: Tuesday, Aug 18


Candidate Name: Han Zou
Phone Number: (310) 962-2211
Web site: https://www.hanforsf.com
E-mail: hanforsf@gmail.com
Name of Campaign Manager: Monica Barnett
How much do you expect to spend in this contest: $75,000
Major Endorsements: AFT 2121
SEIU 1021
Tenants Union
Bernal Heights Democratic Club
Latinx Young Democrats Club
Potrero Hill Democrats
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Shanell Williams, City College Board of Trustees President
Tom Temprano, City College Board of Trustees Vice-President
Brigitte Davila, City College Board of Trustees
Jon Rizzo, City College Board of Trustees
Jackie Fielder, State Senate Candidate
Gordon Mar, District 4 Supervisor
Dean Preston, District 5 Supervisor
Matt Haney, District 6 Supervisor
Rafael Mandelman, District 8 Supervisor
Hillary Ronen, District 9 Supervisor
Shamann Walton, District 10 Supervisor
Chesa Boudin, District Attorney
Mano Raju, San Francisco Public Defender
David Campos, DCCC Chair
Honey Mahogany, DCCC Vice-Chair
Peter Gallotta, DCCC Vice-Chair
Keith Baraka, DCCC Vice-Chair
Gloria Berry, DCCC Member
Carolina Morales, DCCC Member
Faauuga Moliga, School Board Member
Kim-Shree Maufas, Former School Board Member
Sarah Souza, Latino Democratic Club President
Sophie Maxwell, Former District 10 Supervisor
John Avalos, Former District 11 Supervisor
Petra DeJesus, Police Commissioner
Title for identification purposes

Incumbent Board Member whose votes most reflect your values: Tom Temprano
Incumbent whose votes least reflect your values: N/A

1. What is your stance on resuming in-person classes in the time of
COVID? What would be the main basis on which you make this
decision? (e.g., would it be based on your gut feelings, or whose
advice would you listen to?)

School reopening in the Fall is the biggest challenge that every single city and town in the country is facing. For the last four months, I have been staffing the City's Children and Youth Policy group where we've been working to support SFUSD to ensure that students are able to return to learning safely in the Fall. It's clear now that reopening physically is not going to work. Teachers, faculty members, and custodial staff have serious concerns over safety - and rightfully so - and we have neither the proper amount of PPE equipment nor time to ensure safety in the facility. However, it's important to recognize the mental health ramifications and developmental impact of a lack of socialization for children, many who are in key developmental stages. While schools may not open physically, there absolutely needs for there to be considerations on how we can ensure distance learning is equitable and that there are opportunities for students to see and interact with other students.

2. Why are you running for College Board?

I am running for City College Board of Trustees because I understand the value of a public education and access to education. My entire education has been through the public system and education changed my life! My mom grew up poor in central China, in a city called Lanzhou in Gansu province. She was the first person in her family to go to college, where she studied Public Health. She applied to the PhD program at Yale on a whim and was accepted. It was through her perseverance and fearlessness that my dad and I were able to join her and come to the United States on her J1 Visa. She's now a professor herself and teaches courses on early childhood development. As a trustee I want to bring my experience working with immigrant families to make sure that post-pandemic, the immigrant and minority families who've been most affected by the shut down, can use City College as an opportunity to help change careers and learn new skills in the new economy.
There's no question that COVID-19 will define the city and I will also bring to the board a fearlessness to challenge the status quo and independence from the school's Administration. There are going to be massive calls for austerity as we try to recover from a concerted effort to pit communities against each other to fight over slices of the pie while huge corporations and millionaires in the CIty continue to get richer.

3. How are you currently involved in the Community College -- or how
were you involved in the past?

One of my first organizing experiences when I became involved in San Francisco politics was organizing with AFT 2121 to advocate for the retrofitting and re-opening of the Eddy Street campus in the Tenderloin. This was well before the $845 million dollar bond we passed in March and we were fighting to make sure that students who were primarily immigrant students taking ESL classes, had a location to return to when the Civic Center Campus lease expired. Unfortunately this is still there's been a lot of delays and it's still a fight and I'm committed to continuing to organize to make sure that these marginalized students are not left out in the cold.
In Supervisor Haney's office, I staff the Supervisor on education issues and policies for both City College and SFUSD. I've been working, especially during this pandemic to connect students and families to City services, many who typically relied on our school systems as the access point for food, counseling services, childcare, and other vital support services. I've also been staffing the Children and Youth Workgroup to support in the safe reopening of our education institutions.
City College serves students from an incredibly diverse background. And the issues that affect access to education go beyond just what's offered in the classrooms - it's about food and housing security, about reliable and accessible transportation, and it's about creating equitable points of access for students who may not be your typical 18 year old high school grad. In my role in City Hall, I have the unique opportunity to work with and have a deep understanding of the outside barriers that our students have to face and I can bring that experience to City College.

4. What is your stance on public and private partnerships within the
college?

I am opposed to them. I am suspicious of private/public partnerships because they're dangerous and can potentially be used to weaken unions. I also have a very real fear that CCSF entering into long-term deals with private companies may constrain the District and the Board's policymaking options for decades to come because they're contractually tied to each other and have to consider each other's interests before they can make a decision on anything.

5. What is your position on Free City College? How should it
be changed, if at all?

I'm proud that City College was the first in the country to provide free community college education. I will work to expanded to not just covering the per unit fee of classes, but also the health fee, web registration fee, course material fees and increased access for undocumented students.

Enrolling for classes, even knowing what classes that are available, was always a challenge particularly for immigrant communities and limited-English speaking communities. The pandemic and the lack of in person services at campuses have made it even more challenging. I will work to make the enrollment process easier, create in-person enrollment options for students with limited technology access, and meet under-enrolled populations where they are - whether that's community events, WeChat, or in partnership with Community-Based Organizations.

6. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that you and the public would receive the college's draft budget with sufficient
time to review it thoroughly before adopting it?

We need to begin the budget process earlier, especially post-pandemic when we will need to create a long term plan for the school to recover financially. More than ever we need to ensure there is sufficient time for students, our union partners, and faculty and staff to have time to review, collective bargain, and buy into the budget.

7. What is your position on selling campus properties?

Campuses should not be sold to private enterprises.

8. Do you feel there is enough transparency or public disclosure of
the Board and the college? How would you change things?

There is not enough transparency. From talking to students and faculty that there are serious concerns about the management of CCSF. There needs to be more transparency in how decisions are made within the Administration and the process needs to be accessible to the people it serves. As Trustee, I will bring more scrutiny to those in the decision making seats and create a budget process that students and faculty can participate in without needing an economics degree to understand what's happening.

9. Have you attended the Community College Board meeting? Would you
change public comment policy at the meetings? If so, how?

I have been attending meetings regularly. Like any process, the policy for public comment could be better. I'd like to see the 10 minute total per topic changed because some issues just cannot be addressed in 10 minutes.

10. How will you increase quality child care at ALL campuses?

Currently, CCSF provides limited childcare in the Child Development Department and I would like to see funds dedicated towards expanding this program to increase availability and expand to each campus. Like the proposed Congressional Prospect Act, I'd like to see San Francisco institute a similar program to help community colleges provide free, high-quality childcare to parents enrolled at CCSF. According to recent data, over a quarter of all community college students are parents, and 40 percent of black women attending college were parents. In June, the City of San Francisco pledged $1 Million in grants for small child care providers and I don't see why we can't extend this to City College.

11. How will you work to counter and prevent profiling and police harassment on campus? What is your position on police firearms on
campus?

As a community college in one of the most progressive cities in the world, CCSF needs to be at the forefront of course offerings that shine a light on social justice issues. SFPD has a partnership with CCSF that provides professional development to currently employed officers and offers courses that lead to advanced certifications. There is an even greater opportunity here to offer classes that focus on community policing such as Managing Implicit Bias, Effective Responses to Mental Health Crises etc. The ideal curriculum would have a heavy focus on not just education and crisis intervention, but fostering understanding and having difficult conversations about law enforcement in the United States.
Also, there should not be any1` armed police officers on school campuses. Having armed police respond to complaints on school premises only serves to criminalize our students.

12. What is your position on allowing noncitizens the right to vote for College Board and other local elections? Did you take a public
position on previous ballot initiatives on the subject?

I support the right of noncitizens to vote in local elections and have supported past ballot measures allowing noncitizens to vote in School Board elections.

13. What are your views of transportation and pedestrian safety to, from and around City College campuses? What, if anything, would
you change, and how would you go about making those changes?

San Francisco has always claimed to be a transit first City but there is a lot more we can and need to do to truly be one. Based on 2018 travel survey results, the majority of both employees and students live within the City of San Francisco, with many living within three miles of CCSF campuses. The majority of CCSF employees commute by driving alone, while the majority of students do not drive to campus. As Trustee, I will work with SFMTA to increase biking infrastructure, including more safe bike lanes around CCSF campuses. There is a need for increased accommodations for disabled students as well as safer pathways for pedestrians. I believe that city streets should be designed to actually serve the communities that use them. And for the Ocean campus that means redesigning streets that put pedestrians and people using wheelchairs first. Slow streets that calm traffic, rerouting traffic, or eliminate traffic entirely should all be prioritized.

14. What is your position of military recruiting on campus?

I do not support military recruitment on campus because they unfairly target low-income youth and students of color and can be exploitative. We have the third largest military in the world and spend far more than any other country -- there's no reason we need to be going to schools to recruit students.

15. What criteria will you use in deciding whether new cell phone antennas will be installed on top of City College buildings?

I would take my advice from the San Francisco Department of Health and the reports they link on their website to Base Station research.