Im curious about this chick who wrote this what shes doing wirh ehr liberla life now:
„ As a student in Eloy Zarate's History 2B class, I feel compelled to express my distress regarding the lead article in the March 1st issue of The Courier. The headline implies that the article is about the mishandling by the college of a student complaint, when, in fact, the article is the public airing of the complaint that lodges very serious charges against Professor Zarate. In effect, the article is a character assassination. It is my fear that this has caused Professor Zarate irreparable harm in that a teacher's reputation must be above reproach in regard to matters as important as racial bias. My attempt in this letter is to refute these allegations with the experience that I have had in Professor *Zarate's class. Also, I find fault with the reporting practices of The Courier that I will address. On the very first day of class, Professor Zarate challenged all of us to look at the history we have learned in a new way. His presentation was invigorating. The whole world was brought into play. In no way did I feel that one group was being put down, hut rather, that all of the peoples of the world were being included in the evolution of civilization. Before, world history had been about mon- archs, battles, wars, treaties and dates in a small section of the globe. Now I am learning world history and it is exciting for me. Just ask my family who hear about it often. More important than my enjoyment of the class, though, is my perspective of the class. It is my opinion that the overriding theme of the class is to be completely non-racist by learning about all peoples and treating them equally in a historical way. In other words, every culture is on a level playing field. One group does not deserve all the credit, nor one all of the blame. That to me is a true and fair worldview. And the person who teaches that way cannot be racist. Professor Zarate brings tremendous passion to his classroom. It was this same passion that saw him through the many years of school to attain his educational goals. He is very aware of his student's needs. He has instituted a book loan program in his classes where previous students donate their books to current students. The books are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. It connects his students in a way that gives them the opportunity to give back to the class and saves the students money. This is offered to everyone in the class evenly and with no discrimination. There has been one essay assigned in the class so far. Professor Zarate conducted a writing seminar on his day off to help students with the assignment. I received a good grade on the paper with many comments. I met with Professor Zarate who spent a good deal of time criticizing the structure and other elements. Never did I feel that he was attacking me personally; there were some problems with the paper and he wanted to help me work them out. In my class, some of the students didn't follow the guidelines for the paper. Professor Zarate made the decision to throw 0ut all of those grades and give those students another chance with the other optional essay. It is so clear that he wants all of his students to learn and ..-to succeed. Professor Zarate has been described as aggressive. The word has a negative connotation. I prefer the word passionate. However, if phoning all of your students who miss class and miss the mid-term because you want them " to pass the class, then Professor Zarate is aggressive in his pursuit of success for his students. To me, that is the mark of an outstanding and caring teacher. It is clear that I have a very different opinion of Professor Zarafe than the student who filed the complaint. However, I vehemently believe that he has every right to voice his concerns to the administration and to be upset if school policy was not followed concerning his anonymity. That, according to the headline, was supposed to be the crux of the article. What I find so wholly objectionable is the rush to judgment on the part of The Courier. Professor Zarate teaches five classes at PCC The reporter only visited one class, mine, and approached my fellow students as we left the classroom following our midterm. He said that he was doing an article about complaints against Professor Zarate. Where was his objectivity in soliciting responses? As one of my fellow classmates said, it seemed to her that only problems were being sought so she just walked away We had just completed a very demanding exam and might not be feeling very positive, toward our teacher. I have no doubt that the reporter did not know that the midterm had just happened because he was in such a hurry to meet his deadline (as I was told by the managing editor) that he didn't bother to find out or to interview any of Professor Zarate's other classes, including th£ one of the aggrieved student. This type of reporting is neither fair-minded nor responsible. That is what I find so troubling about this whole matter. Why did The Courier feel such urgency to go to press with this story before it had been well researched? Surely the administration receives complaints about teachers on a regular basis and the paper does not feel compelled to give them credence by publishing them on the front page with a banner headline. The fact that the charges leveled against Professor Zarate are of such an inflammatory nature makes The Courier's responsibility to its readers all the more paramount. It is my hope that this letter remedies some of the damage done to Professor Zarate. The shame in all of this would be if the article in The Courier causes even one student to avoid Professor Zarate's classes because of the misperceptions about Professor Zarate's teaching style advanced in the paper. Professor Zarate is an enormous asset to Pasadena City College and all should be done to repair the damage done by such irresponsible journalism. V Mary Fitzgibbons”
