by Karl Ewald
I don’t think I’ve ever felt a semester move by so quickly. I suppose in saying that I should emphasize that I mean this in a positive sense! I attribute much of this to the many facets of my new role in CCFT. Each day reveals another aspect of the college and its relationship to the community. It is almost fractal in nature. Everywhere you look you find detail and complexity you hadn’t imagined and people diligently focused on making it all work.
This has been a very busy fall for everyone in CCFT. We have a lot of parallel efforts going on and it is only through the efforts of all our active members that we could possibly take on so much. It is easy to support the ideas behind Proposition 55, but it took the collective efforts of our Solidarity and Community Leadership team to get all the pieces together and organize the YES on 55 rally for October 19th from 11:00 to 12:30 on the Quad. We hope to see you there!
As you probably know, we have two strong candidates for the Watsonville (Area 5) seat on Cabrillo’s Governing Board. CCFT hosted a forum at the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz so our members and community could ask questions and hear directly from Daniel Dodge and Leticia Mendoza about their vision for the college. After a bit more than an hour of discussion with the candidates everyone who participated had a much better understanding of the candidates and their thoughts for Cabrillo. We then said goodbye to the candidates and engaged in a lengthy discussion which resulted in our COPE committee voting to endorse Daniel Dodge for the board seat.
Even as negotiations continue, it is amazing to see how much work goes into modifying and maintaining the contract. It’s a large interconnected document and keeping it clean and tidy requires a lot of focus and attention to detail. Changes are tracked rigorously with strikethrough copies so you can review exactly what’s being changed.
I guess the point of all this is that while the union is about ideas, it is also about on-the-ground participation. It can be about doing things you believe in and helping to make the change you want to see. Maybe meetings aren’t your thing. But maybe there’s another way you can help CCFT and in turn help Cabrillo become the college you envision.