Mount Tamalpais College

News_P-2

Mount Tamalpais College Opens First On-Campus Computer Lab

by

In May 2021 the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, agreed to grant Mount Tamalpais College the opportunity to offer students the first computer lab for the only independently accredited liberal arts college in the nation that is located in a prison. 

The lab, designed to accommodate 25 students, seats two to three students at elongated tables — socially distanced at 6 feet. In the classroom, students scurry around waiting for Dell computers to come out of the secured storage space. They then log in with their IDs and passwords. All currently enrolled students have full access to the computer lab on a drop-in basis during its open hours. 

 On a recent visit to the lab, students returned from the day before to access works they started the previous day. Like the library at UC Berkeley or a study hall in USC’s Doheny Library, the lab is very busy.

Informed students assisted new users and worked on essays and presentations — on topics from ecology to Sophocles, to MLK’s “I Have a Dream.” Others prepared rough drafts of poetry, songs, or works that more extensively relate to their aspiring goal of becoming published authors. The room bustled with academia.

Arthur Jackson, a Mount Tamalpais College clerk, was busy helping the lab get open. “The Lab attracts new students — people incarcerated for a long time who are excited because they now practice skills which are transferable to the real world,” said Jackson.

Jackson spoke of an older resident of San Quentin—a single letter man, people who came to prison before August of 2009. Now CDCR is using two letters for people’s identification status. They started with A00000, they are now on CZ0000. “The guy told me this is what rehabilitation should be. Expecting to return to our communities, we can now be more productive because Mount Tamalpais College equips us with new skills.”

He surveyed the classroom. “Look at them. Typing to meet deadlines just like at a real university. With all the camaraderie of the volunteer professors and teachers who provide interconnectivity with inmates, Mt Tam is as diverse as UC Berkeley,” said Jackson.

Carlos Drouaillet, a TA for the lab exclaimed, “Three months ago, we had nothing in relation to computers. During the pandemic, we had to write out our homework for correspondence courses in dark cells, usually having to re-write three or four times in our cells.”

The computers provide basic programs pre-installed on the Dells include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MS OneNote. There is no internet access, however, there is limited intranet access to whitelisted sites, and Mount Tamalpais College is working to get more sites whitelisted so that students will be able to do research.

Ethan Annis, Anila Yadavalli, Amy Jamgochian, Kirsten Pickering, and Newton Xie all contributed to this project, which took two years to come to fruition. From deciding the model of computers, getting them inside of the facility, where to put them, what programs to put on them, etc. etc. The agreement with the warden was a simpler and more efficient process.

Annis, Librarian and Technology Specialist at Dominican College, supported Amy Jamgochian in the negotiations with CDCR and San Quentin about all the particularities of the computer lab and helped create the Letter of Understanding between the College and San Quentin. Volunteer instructor Xie designed the curriculum for the computer lab’s literacy and orientation program, offering students a five-module program before they begin to use the laptops.

Amy Brunson, the college’s new Director of Library Services and Educational Technology, looks forward to maximizing the college’s computer use and is planning the expansion of technical services at Mt. Tam College. Priya Kandaswamy, the Academic Program Director for MTC who also teaches Introduction to Ethnic Studies, said, “It’s something we’ve tried to do for a long time and we are very excited it’s happening.” 

Observations of the lab do not happen without hearing the name Kirsten Pickering. Pickering, who is the Research and Program Fellow at Mount Tamalpais College, instructs the classroom, “Anyone who needs to pick up printing can come with me to the printing station.”

Two men follow her out of classroom B-4 to the administrative hub where print requests are delivered. She also notes there will be a final pick-up of printed materials at 7:30 p.m., approximately 15 minutes before all students must return to their cells.

As the sunset bounces off the actual Mount Tamalpais located outside of San Quentin and radiates into the roof-lined windows, Rudy Moralez tries to improve his academic experience. “The lab helps with my grammar and spelling and corrects my writing fragments,” he says. “I believe it will help my grades improve.” 

Pickering says San Quentin’s administration, especially Warden Ron Broomfield, were supportive in coordinating the concerns of CDCR and the college. Broomfield said he envisions the day when a large proportion of prisoners, those dedicated to reformative education and rehabilitation will possess their own laptop computers.

“This ‘child’ has many parents; for years Jody Lewen wanted technology for our students because that’s how college works on the outside,” said Pickering. 

Pickering believes challenges operating the lab include expediting the current replacement time for broken computers and the synchronization of laptops to San Quentin’s intranet. “We could easily have more computers from donations, but turnaround time for licensing through CDCR is lengthy,” said Pickering.

Mount Tamalpais College plans to implement the same learning management system that the University of California education system uses.

This system, called Canvas, allows remote lecturers and programs that could increase availability to all students while protecting against future lockdowns. 

Pickering spoke of the Canvas system, “Where our vision is to get every student a laptop for equal access, Canvas gives us the same quality as the UC system. CDCR has worked to modify the Canvas program to fit within their specifications…We should incorporate Canvas shortly.”

Pickering spoke of the Peer-to-Peer Computer Lab Assistants who trained with her and STEM Coordinator Anila Yadavalli prior to the installation of the lab. “Quincy, Carlos, Daniel, Ron, Rob, Rufael, C.J. and Rodney were an instrumental part of getting this off the ground.” She added the assistants had to complete rigorous interviews and an orientation that ensured consistency and equal access to all Mount Tamalpais College students.

James Jenkins, who has been incarcerated for 31 years said, “The computer lab is God sent to the extent it enhances our computer and typing skills. It allows me to learn Excel and other apps.

Because of the lab, I am able to do all of my papers, mid-terms and homework here in our classroom. Without this place, I would not be around other motivated peers who share the same hopes and dreams. I would most likely be in my 4 x 8 cell, instead of gaining a whole new outlook on society. Mt Tam has enlightened my behavior towards others.”

Currently 300 other Mt. Tam. students share Jenkins’ vision. Now they can print their visions instead of writing them three to four times. (Read more about MTC computer lab.)

Photo Courtesy of San Quentin News

Mount Tamalpais College Achieves Accreditation

by

Mount Tamalpais College is proud to announce that on January 27, 2022, we were granted Initial Accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). This is a historic moment for Mount Tamalpais College, and a landmark event in a society that has persistently excluded the incarcerated from educational opportunity. San Quentin State Prison is now the site of an academic institution unlike any other in the US: an independent liberal arts college specifically dedicated to serving incarcerated students. 

We could not have achieved this without our community of supporters, faculty, alumni, staff, and friends, whose belief in our mission made this possible. MTC staff, faculty, and students played an especially critical role in hosting the first ACCJC site visit, as well as in developing new program learning outcomes and systems for assessment. Their hard work and dedication over the last two decades are the foundation and inspiration for our current achievements. 

Having reached this milestone, we now continue the essential work of building a world class higher education institution at San Quentin, while helping the field of higher education in prisons across the United States to flourish. This year we will continue to improve the quality of academic instruction, expand student support services, increase access to technology and library resources, and expand our work in the realm of research and evaluation, to name just a few exciting initiatives. 

We extend deep thanks to many people and institutions for their hard work and support throughout the accreditation process: Past Presidents of ACCJC Richard Winn and Stephanie Droker; Interim President Cindy Miles; ACCJC Vice President Catherine Webb; Accreditation Process Director, Elizabeth Dutton. Our ACCJC Peer Review Team, led by Dr. Keith Curry, President of Compton College provided invaluable feedback and guidance that has already profoundly strengthened us as an institution. San Quentin Warden Ron Broomfield, as well as former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Ralph Diaz, have also supported this bold initiative from its inception.

You can read more about our accreditation journey and find the press release announcing our official accreditation here.

First Person: Why College Matters for People Serving Extreme Sentences

by

I attended a college surrounded by fences “adorned” with barbed wire. In early 2021, at 50 years old, I earned an associate’s degree from Mount Tamalpais College, which is located on the lower yard of San Quentin State Prison. It’s been life changing.

Mount Tamalpais College, which we call Mt. Tam, provides a classroom education on the prison grounds. The teachers are volunteers from other schools including Stanford, San Francisco State University, Harvard, and Berkeley. It has a study hall area where tutors are available five nights a week and a recently opened computer lab with 36 laptops that allow communication with teachers and access to reference materials through a “mediated internet,” according to Kirsten Pickering, research program fellow. 

For incarcerated people, the quality or success of a college program is often measured by recidivism rates. By that standard, Mount Tamalpais, formerly the Prison University Project, is a success. Its students had a recidivism rate of 17 percent compared to the 65 percent recidivism rate for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a whole, according to a 2011 program evaluation. 

Moreover, MTC provides jobs for graduates on parole. I’ve seen Dimitri, a former student, come back into the prison, dressed up in a sharp black suit, as an employee of Mt. Tam. The college recently hired Richard “Bonaru” Richardson, the former editor in chief of San Quentin News. I know of at least three other former incarcerated students that are now Mt. Tam employees. 

For those of us serving long sentences, recidivism rates and jobs can’t measure the success of our college education. My pursuit of a degree started in 2016, approximately 16 years into a 55-years-to-life sentence. I would have to live to be 85 years old to evaluate whether an associate’s degree will break the cycle of incarceration that’s circled my adulthood. Proof of the quality of a Mount Tamalpais education has shown itself in several other ways that impacts society and my life.

Incarcerated graduates have a positive influence on their peers and families. I remember attending a graduation where the valedictorian was a man with locks. His siblings attended the event, two sisters and a brother, plus his mother, sat in the front row as he gave a short speech. Afterwards, one of his sisters said, “I’m so proud of my brother. He’s the first to graduate from college in our family. And if he can do that from prison, I can get my degree too.”

The influence of college on peers is also apparent on the yard. In other prisons, the conversations you usually hear about are sports, war stories, or women. At San Quentin, you can walk by and ear hustle (overhear) debates about ethics, politics, or Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. 

A 2016 qualitative study featuring interviews with 27 Mt. Tam students showed that the program positively transformed how students think about themselves, others, and their futures. Over 90 percent of respondents reported that college positively affected their self-identity, mental health, and personal relationships. More than two-thirds also said that the program has positively influenced the prison culture at San Quentin, particularly in regards to race relations.

Personally, I see education as the key to my success from behind bars. After getting sentenced to a term beyond my life expectancy I needed a path to redemption in the eyes of my mother, my sons, and society that didn’t involve going home. I came up with becoming a writer because my voice was the one part of me that was still free.

I envisioned writing a memoir that people who grew up in tough neighborhoods like I did would read and drop their guns. The problem with that plan was that I only had a high school education and no creative writing skills. In isolation I wrote for 10 years without training or a mentor. Words stacked up that no one heard.

 In 2013, my security level dropped and I was transferred to San Quentin, a progressive lower security prison. Here they have all kinds of programs and I signed up for anything that could make me a better writer, including college, creative writing and the San Quentin News Journalism Guild.

Each program made my writing better and better. I became the sports editor for San Quentin news, and a contributing writer for The Marshall Project and Current. Additionally, the college program offered a communication class that developed my speaking skills. I pursued the oral art to deliver prerecorded speeches over a collect call to reach Stanford, MoMA and to honor James King, the campaign manager for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and California State Senator Nancy Skinner for their work by the nonprofit law firm UnCommon Law. Plus, speaking skills landed me the cohost and co-producer job with the Ear Hustle podcast, which was a 2020 Pulitzer Prize finalist and DuPont award winner. 

In a trailer used for a classroom, I learned the history of Black codes, unions, the New Deal and other events that shaped the environment that shaped me. From gaining this worldview, I began to look beyond the people who bullied me growing up and instead began to see the systems that pitted us against each other. My new perspective made it easier to quit taking things personally, forgive others, let go of my anger, and heal.

Additionally, I learned how political systems work and put that knowledge to use. I inspired Taina Angeli Vargas of the nonprofit advocacy group Initiate Justice to fight for the restoration of voting rights for incarcerated people. Our efforts led to Prop 17, an initiative on a 2020 ballot in California which gained the support to restore voting rights to people on parole.

Another thing that made learning from teachers in person a high-quality educational experience was the socialization. Other prisons only offered correspondence courses that pale in comparison to in person learning. Imagine professors from famous universities volunteering to give you a free education. Their dedication made me feel a love and loyalty to society that I never felt before — I can’t be a waste of their time.

I think the biggest mark of success stemming from my college education on a prison yard is the opportunity to go home. On January 13, 2022 California Governor Gavin Newsom commuted my sentence, which grants me a parole board hearing this summer for a chance of getting a release date in early 2023. As a reason for granting mercy, Newsom’s Legal Affairs Office cited “participating in self-help programming and completing college coursework.”

Editor’s Note: Mount Tamalpais College was founded in 1996 as the Prison University Project, and operated as an extension site of Patten University. In January 2020, the program changed its name to Mount Tamalpais College when it became a candidate for accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). The college is the first independent liberal arts institution dedicated specifically to serving incarcerated students.

Rahsaan “New York” Thomas is a writer, podcaster, and director. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the DuPont Award in 2020 for his work as a co-host and co-producer on Season Four of the Ear Hustle podcast. He’s also the chairperson of the San Quentin satellite chapter of the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists and a contributing writer for Current, the Marshall Project, and San Quentin News. All from a cell at San Quentin State Prison.

Attribution: This article originally appeared in Open Campus on January 19, 2022.

Read Story

Seeking faculty for Spring 2022

by

We’re preparing for our spring semester, which begins in January — and we need you!

There are a variety of roles in which educators can volunteer with Mount Tamalpais College. From instructors to TAs, tutors to research assistants, it takes an incredible community to provide a world-class education to our students.

We seek candidates who are committed to our mission and to working with diverse communities. All faculty are required to have some teaching or tutoring experience, and credit course faculty also must have a graduate degree—ideally a PhD—in a relevant discipline. People who have been directly impacted by incarceration, or who reflect the cultural, ethnic, socio-economic, and racial diversity of our student body are especially encouraged to apply.

You can learn more about the various roles and teaching opportunities here, and submit your application at the links below. We will start reviewing applications on November 8, 2021. While we will still accept applications past the deadline, applications received by the deadline will be prioritized.


Meet Anila Yadavalli, Math Program Coordinator

by

As we kick off a new semester (our first in-person since the pandemic began!) we’re also welcoming an incredible group of new staff, which includes some familiar faces and former students. Get to know Anila, our new Math Program Coordinator, in her own words below.

What brings you to work at Mount Tamalpais College?

I have a very technical mathematics background, but deep inside I’ve always been drawn towards outreach and social justice projects. I was looking for roles in which I could combine my mathematics and teaching background with social justice and the Math Program Coordinator role was exactly that. The cherry on top is that I get to move back to the Bay Area, where I grew up!

What part of your role is most exciting to you so far? What are you most looking forward to?

As an educator, I obviously love interacting with students, but I am also super excited about training faculty. Having been on the volunteer side of a non-profit for a few years I know how valuable it can be to have the support of paid staff, and I am excited to provide that for our faculty. I’ve also been an advocate for free, accessible education for a really long time, so it feels great to join an organization that is advancing that mission!

Tell us about a formative educational experience you had. Was there a class, teacher, or academic experience that influenced the course of your life?

My high school pre-calculus teacher was amazing; she was the first person to ever notice/praise my mathematics work. Until then, I was always told that math would be a subject I would perpetually struggle in. She noticed my hard work and creative thinking, and that made me decide I wanted to be a math teacher just like her! (Mrs. Warmuth from Lynbrook High School, if you are reading this, thank you so much!)

What unique skills, experiences, or perspectives do you bring to Mount Tam College?

I’ve lived and taught in so many different environments, from North India to North Carolina. Along the way, I have encountered so many different students who bring all kinds of different “mathematical baggage” with them to the classroom. Over the years, I’ve learned that struggling with math as an adult learner is a very frustrating and vulnerable, but common, place to be in. Recognizing this, I try to bring empathy to my teaching approach and try to make learning math a joyful experience.

What are your interests outside of work?

I love Yoga with Adriene! I completed two of her 30-day challenges this year, and I am planning to get my Yoga Teacher Training in the near future. I also love cooking vegetarian food and hiking. Pre-covid, I was very into indoor bouldering, and now that gyms are opening back up, I hope to get back on the walls!

Historic Agreement Reached Allowing Laptop Use by Students

by

We are thrilled to announce that we have reached a historic agreement with the administration at San Quentin State Prison around the use of technology by Mount Tamalpais College students. As we resume in-person classes, we will have laptops, charging carts, and printers available in the prison for student and faculty use. Students will be able to use laptops during class or in the education building.

Laptops will allow students to conduct research independently and access learning supports and word processing capabilities. They may also access online resources available on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Canvas Learning Management System. This initiative will begin on a limited basis, and will gradually be expanded over time.

This agreement represents a significant gain for our students. For the past twenty-five years, students have not had access to technology or computers during their studies. They have handwritten work and conducted research using printouts and course readers sourced by faculty members and a limited collection of books. In fact, very few programs at San Quentin have been allowed to bring any technology or equipment inside the prison, resulting in a marked technology gap among incarcerated people upon their release.

Ultimately, we hope that students will have access to the laptops during lockdowns or quarantines and be able to engage in synchronous and asynchronous remote instruction as needed. We are now in the process of purchasing and processing the equipment for use as in-person programming resumes. 

Alumni Spotlight: Barney McClendon

by

Many of our former students remain committed to a life of service upon paroling and are often strong advocates for those still inside. We’re proud to share the following reflection from our alumni community.

I joined what later became the Prison University Project for the chance to earn some more college credits and because it provided both a challenge and a positive program. It’s much better to challenge the mind, and perhaps improve it, rather than spend one’s time watching TV or lounging in the yard.

I cannot locate my diploma, but I must have graduated around 2000, or just before. I was released in October of 2004, completing parole in 2009.

I think the most significant impact the Prison University Project had on myself, and most of my fellow students, was bolstering our self-esteem and personal confidence. That, and the competition against ourselves. It gave me a feeling of self-accomplishment—not to mention improved communications skills.

I enjoyed the instructors and the exposure to people from the community and not just the prison system.

There were some great classes and other activities. One volunteer weekend class was called “The Sunflower”. Not a class for credit, but a great experience.

Since paroling, I initially held self-help classes at the local half-way house for a few years and spent a lot of time just recovering social and technical skills that I lost during 22 years of incarceration. I am now eighty and after numerous medical problems do very little other than day-to-day existence.

In summary, the college program was the most enjoyable and helpful program I experienced during my incarceration. I think that the more inmates that take classes, then lower the inside violence and return to the insanity of drugs and crime.

Please note that the Prison University Project became Mount Tamalpais College in September 2020.