Please save the date for “Sharing HerStories” taking place Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 12:30 – 2:00 p.m., in-person at Skyline College Library (Building 5, 2nd floor) as well as online via Zoom. In celebration of womxn’s history, the Library is pleased to provide an inclusive space for all who identify as womxn to gather and share stories about themselves – and for all genders to share about the important womxn in their lives. 

Stories in all formats are encouraged including narrative, poetry, song, art, and other creative media. We encourage storytellers to share for approximately 3 to 4 minutes.

Find out more about Sharing HerStories and other inspirational womxn who have shaped and are shaping our lives today here: tinyurl.com/SkylineSharingHerStories. A virtual book display highlighting award winning books available for check out is included. New and classic books on women in our society will also be displayed and available for checkout at the March 23 library event. A photo exhibit featuring Skyline College womxn and inspiring womxn change-makers is also on display.

Please direct any questions to faculty librarian Pia Walawalkar at walawalkars@smccd.edu.

We look forward to sharing stories with you soon! 

March is Women’s History Month and the Associated Students of Skyline College (ASSC) is celebrating it with two remarkable events for the enjoyment of fellow students, faculty and staff:

 

Live Jazz Performance by Dr. Kim Nalley
Wednesday March 9, 2022
12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Building 6, Fireside Dining Room

Dr. Kim Nalley keeps jazz alive as a performing and recording artist, exuding the aura of a diva from a by-gone era. Vocally, she has pipes to burn packing a 3 1/2 octave range that can go from operatic to gritty blues on a dime, projection that can whisper a ballad yet is capable of filling a room with no microphone, and the ability to scat blistering solos without ever losing the crowd’s interest or the intense swing. She has been compared to all the greats, but in the end, it’s Kim Nalley and no one else – an unforced instrument with clarity and jazzy musicality, effortlessly delivered, and a sense of humor to boot.

On top of that, she was a featured writer for JazzWest and SF Chronicle’s City Brights, shortlisted for a Grammy nomination, a produced playwright, an avid Lindy Hop & blues dancer and the former jazz club owner of Jazz at Pearl’s. She earned her Ph.D. in history at UC Berkeley and is a published scholar.

(source: kimnalley.com/biography)

 

 

Rebound Film Screening + Q&A Panel

Presented by award-winning filmmaker Tamara Perkins

Thursday, March 10, 2022
3 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Virtual, on Zoom: bit.ly/WHMmovie

Rebound is about two women who find healing and hope through sisterhood, service, and education while carrying the weight of motherhood, trauma, and incarceration.

Separated by decades and starkly different circumstances two women rebound from incarceration. They each overcome their years of addiction and abuse to pursue the promise of higher education. These aspiring scholars navigate parole, raising young children, and self-healing to find acceptance, sisterhood, and hope for a new life.

Tamara Perkins is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and changemaker focused on stories that inspire dialogue, empower and uplift voices from vulnerable communities. Pulling from her work in restorative justice as a grief support facilitator, speaker, and non-profit director she founded Apple of Discord Productions in 2006. Co-founding yoga and mindfulness non-profit Niroga in 2005 both inspired Tamara’s early short films and facilitated her relationship with San Quentin State Prison. Involved with grief and trauma support since 2001, Tamara’s experience facilitating groups for children, youth and adults has influenced her interviewing and storytelling practice and philosophy. Continuing to connect media, activism and healing, she developed programs such as the Wisdom Project and San Quentin Media Project which trained at-risk youth and incarcerated men in filmmaking as a tool for transformation.

(source: imdb.com/title/tt15340588/)

 

This Valentine’s Day, Skyline College Library and Language Arts faculty hosted a first ever Poetry Corner virtual session honoring the life and works of bell hooks, with a particular focus on her ethic of love.

To put hooks’ life and works in context, the discussion began with a screening of a short YouTube episode, “The Real Influencers,” by Fatimah Jackson about how hooks highlighted the plight of Black women in America (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCkphkt21sc)

Participants were then invited to consider the virtual session as a safe space, “a brave space,” to express their feelings, ideas, and any works about love they wished to share.

Beginning with Prof. Lucia Lachmayr, hook’s wisdom drew praise: “Love in our society has become so commodified…It doesn’t become about celebrating the uniqueness and awesomeness of everyone around us… hooks deconstructed the concept of love in a way nobody has done before.” Prof. Rob Williams shared his thoughts as well, highlighting hooks’ tenet that there can be no love without justice. Prof. Luciana Castro read a prize-winning poem composed by her mother Abigail Castro titled “Petals of velvet” on the nature of love and contentment.

Another short video about hooks was shown, followed by courageous readings by Skyline College creative writing students sharing their own writings on love and relationships. Participants included Allison Chang, Katherine Panaligan, Kevin Santiago, Arrysa Muhammed, Stephanie Borja, Tara Grover, and Liz Jordan.

Others followed: Faculty librarian and session organizer Pia Walawalkar read from hook’s concept of “Love as the Practice of Freedom.”  Prof. Maryam Khan read excerpt from hooks’ book All about Love and Khan’s favorite Rupi Kaur poems about self-love and community love. Puente faculty counselor Alex Urbina relayed her experiences of sisterhood attending WMLA meetings, also sharing a hook’s quotation about the necessity of sisterhood for building a sustained feminist movement. Instructional Aide II Sherri Wyatt shared a well-known verse from First Corinthians 13:4-8 reminding us “Love is patient and kind…love endures all things.” Lastly, BSU President Kassidy Corbin thanked everyone for participating and invited the group to the students’ Friday meetings.

If you were unable to attend the February 14 session, a recording is available on the Library’s bell hooks research guide here: https://guides.skylinecollege.edu/bellhooks The Library invites you to use this guide as a starting place for engaging with hook’s inspirational ideas and teachings.

Thanks especially to the Learning Center’s Marisa Thigpen and other organizers and participants for making this first-ever event a success!

 

Article by Jessica Silver-Sharp

Senate Bill 114 was recently signed into law.  Senate Bill 114 requires employers with 26 or more employees to provide up to 80 hours of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave for qualifying reasons. This new paid sick leave began on February 19, 2022 and is retroactive to January 1, 2022.  The law expires on September 30, 2022. Below are key provisions of the new paid sick leave:

 

WHO IS ELIGIBLE:

• An employee unable to work or telework because of a qualifying reason.

QUALIFYING REASONS:

 Sick Leave Bank One (Up to 40 hours; prorated for part-time employees):

• Vaccine-Related: The covered employee is attending a vaccine or booster appointment for themselves or a family member or cannot work or telework because they have vaccine–related symptoms or are caring for a family member with vaccine-related symptoms.  For each vaccination or booster appointment and any consequent side effects an employee may use up to 3 days, unless a health care provider verifies that more recovery time is needed.
• Caring for Yourself: The employee is subject to quarantine or isolation period related to COVID-19 as defined by an order or guidance of the California Department of Public Health, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or a local public health officer with jurisdiction over the workplace; has been advised by a healthcare provider to quarantine; or is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis.
• Caring for a Family Member* : The covered employee is caring for a family member who is subject to a COVID-19 quarantine or isolation period or has been advised by a healthcare provider to quarantine due to COVID-19, or is caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed or unavailable due to COVID-19 on the premises

Sick Leave Bank Two  (up to an additional 40 hours; prorated for part-time employees):

• The covered employee tests positive for COVID-19
• The covered employee is caring for a family member* who tested positive for COVID-19.

*A family member includes a child, parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

For additional information on this leave, please view the following:

• Link to the State Department of Industrial Relations 2022 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Poster:  2022 SPSL Poster (ca.gov)
•  Link to the State Department of Industrial Relations 2022 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave FAQs:  2022 SPSL FAQs (ca.gov)
• District Downloads

In order to utilize this leave please complete the 2022 COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Form.  Report your COVID-19-related absence by completing your leave report on WebSMART and entering hours under leave code SPL.  For faculty, please complete an absence affidavit and enter hours under leave code SPL.

If you have any questions, please contact Jim Vlahos at vlahosjames@smccd.edu.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on March 1, 2022 that aligns Cal/OSHA with the CDPH guidance in lifting the mask mandate for unvaccinated workers indoors. 

However, the San Mateo County Community College District maintains its masking requirement for all employees, students, and visitors regardless of their vaccination status until further notice.   

As such, all employees, students, and visitors entering any District facility are required to wear a face mask in all indoor settings unless actively eating or drinking in designated areas. Signage to this effect is posted in all buildings throughout the District. 

N95 AND SURGICAL MASKS ARE AVAILABLE CAMPUSWIDE

Surgical masks and N95 respirator masks are available at the entrances of every occupied building throughout the District. 

To learn more about different types of effective masks, click here.