Family, friends, former students, local leaders, and the greater Oakland community attended a memorial Saturday honoring revered Laney College and former Skyline High School coach John Beam, who was allegedly killed by a former Laney student in November.

As the Chronicle reports, about 2,200 people were in attendance at Saturday's memorial for longtime coach and mentor John Beam at Oakland’s Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts. Per the Chronicle, Sunday would’ve been Beam’s 67th birthday.

As KPIX reports, Beam helped mentor over 30 NFL players, seven of which were Super Bowl participants, and many were in attendance Saturday.

“He was the embodiment of tough love, though I didn’t realize it at 14 or 15,” said Marvel Smith, who played for Beam at Skyline, per the Chronicle, and went on to play in the Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006 and 2009. “He was setting a structure in place to help us long term, and I fully appreciate it now. It molded me into who I am today.”

“You were so much more than a football coach, you were my hero, my mentor and the most important person in my life,” said Kevin Parker, a former player, per KPIX. “You believed in me before I believed in myself and that belief changed who I am.”

Per NBC Bay Area, Beam also mentored students who weren’t football players. “I know that there’s been a lot of challenges in our city, but there’s still a lot of good, and John Beam brought a lot of that goodness out of community members, especially through young people and the rising generation,” said Feke Lauti, a 1997 Skyline High graduate whose older brothers played football.

“This is what a life well lived looks like,” said Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, per the Chronicle. “This is 45 years of love returned. Coach Beam believed in Oakland’s young people when the world told them what they were not. He saw potential where others saw problems.”

“I was born in the middle of football season,” said Beam’s daughter Sonjha, per KPIX. “And if you ask my dad, that was no coincidence. He always said it was perfect timing, early enough in the morning so he could be there with my mom, hold me and then still make it back up the hill to Skyline in time for practice.”

As SFist reported in November, Cedric Irving, Jr., who took one of Beam’s classes at Laney College in 2022, is suspected of fatally shooting Beam. Irving reportedly told police he believed Beam was practicing witchcraft on him. Per SFist, Beam was featured in the 2020 Netflix series, Last Chance U.

In the below video clip, Beam delivers an inspiring speech to athletes during a luncheon.

Image: Laney College

Previously: Alleged Shooter of Laney College Football Coach Reportedly Claimed Coach Used Witchcraft on Him

Class of 2026 seniors with a minimum 2.5 GPA from 43 California school districts, including several in the Bay Area, can now automatically enroll at 16 schools in the CSU system, and in 2027, eligible seniors from all 937 districts statewide will automatically be accepted.

As CalMatters reports, California Senate Bill 640, which went into effect January 1, aims to boost enrollment at 16 California State University campuses, including San Francisco State, Cal State East Bay, and Sonoma State, while streamlining the admissions process for qualifying graduating seniors, as part of the state’s Direct Admission Program. Beginning in 2027, students from public schools statewide will be eligible, in addition to students from county-run schools and charter schools tied to local educational agencies — but they’ll still need to enroll through CaliforniaColleges.edu and pay their tuition.

As Sacramento’s KPBS reports, the initiative, which began as a pilot program in Riverside County in Southern California, officially started rolling out this year, enabling graduating seniors from 43 school districts, including several in Alameda, Napa, Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Sonoma counties, to automatically enroll in fall classes. Per the Chronicle, six of the 22 CSU schools, including San Jose State, have nearly full enrollment and are exempt from the program.

Per KPBS, Democratic State Senator Christopher Cabaldon of Yolo County authored the bill, which he modeled after the College Promise program he launched as mayor of West Sacramento, which gives high school seniors tuition-free acceptance into Sacramento City College. According to Wikipedia, Cabaldon has a long history in higher education policy, including leadership roles in the California Community Colleges system, education nonprofits, and state and national advisory boards.

As the blog Abridged writes, Cabaldon hopes the new program will inspire graduating seniors to follow a path that they might not have considered before — or at least eliminate some of the bureaucracy surrounding the admissions process.

“In that moment, you and your family are rethinking the possibilities,” Cabaldon said in a hearing, per Abridged. “What never seemed like the normal path becomes already done. You don’t have to do anything more.”

“The core of the bill is not just to change the process and the legal entitlements,” Cabaldon said, per Abridged. “It’s mainly to change the way that the psychology of going to college is and to invite more students to go through that path.”

Catalina Cifuentes, an official in Riverside County, told Abridged that the pilot program has already made a positive impact on graduating seniors’ lives. “We have been able to help students who previously did not even know that they had met all of the requirements to get into college enjoy a smooth transition towards higher education,” Cifuentes told Abridged. “It is really exciting to see people realize they have the potential to go to college when it wasn’t even on their radar.”

Image: Cal State University East Bay/Facebook

Previously: SF State Faculty Announce Strike In December, Other State Schools Set to Join

A big blow to kids who hoped their family connections would get them into a prestigious college could be coming as one of Assemblymember Phil Ting’s last bills on his way out of office would ban legacy admissions at universities statewide.

When the conservative-majority US Supreme Court shot down affirmative action at colleges and universities last June, one unexpected backlash to that decision was a push to ban legacy admissions at those universities as well. Legacy admissions are sort of the opposite of affirmative action, as they’re college admissions that give a leg up to students who have parents or grandparents who are alumni of that university. The obvious ploy for the university is that those parents and grandparents tend to be wealthy, and therefore more likely to make financial contributions to the school, while the students that benefit from legacy admissions tend to be white and wealthy.

Several universities nationwide have since banned legacy admissions, and the states Colorado and Virginia have also outlawed legacy admissions at public universities. Maryland has banned legacy admissions at both public and private colleges. And now the New York Times reports that our own state Assemblymember Phil Ting has a bill in the state legislature that would ban legacy admission at California’s private universities.

California’s public universities already do not allow legacy admissions.

“It makes complete sense to now ensure that we don’t look at someone’s wealth or lineage with the university to decide whether to admit them,” Ting told the Times. He said his bill “doesn’t ban admitting donors’ or alumni children,” but “it just ensures that there’s no preferential treatment.”

It will probably not come as a shocker to you that the two California private universities with the largest percentages of legacy admission students are Stanford and USC, both with 14% of their incoming student bodies being legacy admitted, according to the most recent year’s data. The University of Santa Clara was not far behind at 13%.

Ting’s bill AB 1780 has already passed the state Assembly 55-0, and is currently in state Senate committees. The measure would have to pass the state Senate by August 31, and be signed by Governor Newsom, to become law.

Phil Ting, of course, is in the final months of his state Assembly term. He’ll be termed out at the end of this year, and SF Supervisor Catherine Stefani is running to be his successor.

Related: Affirmative Action Decision at Supreme Court Will Likely Mean Less Diversity at California's Private Universities [SFist]

Image: Palo Alto, CA, USA - Sept. 17, 2015: Stanford University Hoover Tower. Completed in 1941, the 50th year of Stanford University's anniversary, the tower was inspired by the cathedral tower in Salamanca, Spain. (Getty Images)

A stunning 20% of all applications to California community colleges are now “ghost students,” that is, scammers using someone else’s name to pocket the financial aid and never show up for a single class.

Some notable new categories of massive fraud emerged during the pandemic, like the billions in fraudulent unemployment payments, and the widespread fraudulent PPP loans. In many cases, the scammers used another real person’s name and identity, like the lady who managed to cash $21,000 in unemployment benefits in Dianne Feinstein’s name. Now the Chronicle reports on a new, emerging, and increasingly out-of-control scam of fraudulent college applications, where the con artists use someone else’s name to sign up for financial aid, and then pocket the aid money themselves.  

The fraudsters are primarily running this scheme on community colleges, which are required to accept any student’s name that has a high school diploma attached to it, and a social security number is not required on an application. And the scheme is becoming extraordinarily common for these schools. The Chronicle notes that 460,000 of the 2.3 million online applications to California community colleges since last July are these fraudulent, “ghost student” applications — meaning that a full 20% of these college applications are fake.

It’s a problem because it’s fraud, and it’s a problem because the underfunded community colleges have to spend so much intensive labor playing whack-a-mole to weed out the fakes. But there’s another troubling aspect, that the fake ghost students are actually taking up slots in classes that real live students are getting crowded out from.

SF City College journalism instructor Molly Oleson told the City College newspaper The Guardian in February that “I thought the class was over-capacity. I had a couple students on the waitlist who really wanted to take the class but weren’t able to get in because of the fraudulent students registered.”

The fraudsters are focusing their efforts on Pell grants, which became a more attractive target because the federal government stopped verifying family income during the pandemic. And these fraudsters are generally not single operators, but have instead organized into rings. The Department of Education currently has 48 active investigations into suspected student loan fraud rings in California alone.

The Chron explains how many of these operators work, in the context of three women indicted for student loan fraud in March. They used prisoners’ names and identifications to get Pell grants, and the Department of Education approved the grants. The Federal Reserve them moved those funds to a banking app, which distributed the funds into personal accounts or as as prepaid debit cards, which could be used on anything, and were not used on tuition.  

Those three women scammed $980,000 from the system before being caught.

Related: Total Scope of California's Unemployment Check Fraud Was Around $20 Billion [SFist]

Image: College of San Mateo via Facebook

Pass the beer bong, bro. Despite the high cost of living, San Francisco just got named the top "major metro" for college students by the American Institute for Economic Research. According to the report, which was picked up by The Examiner, the honor is based more on students' future job prospects and quality of life than any particular institute of higher learning.

“The location you choose to go to college determines where you will likely spend the next four years of your life, and possibly where you will start your career," explained Amanda Knarr of AIER. "Our ranking reflects the characteristics that make cities attractive to the average college student.”

Denver, Austin, and Portland, Oregon, take the top three spots for mid-size cities. Ann Arbor, Tallahassee, and Durham came in at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for smaller cities.

San Francisco beat out Boston, D.C., Minneapolis, and Seattle — which came in at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, respectively — for the title. Interestingly, we were benefited in the rankings by our proximity to San Jose. "For the purposes of this study, San Francisco is a different city than San José, Calif.; nonetheless, it has a strong tech sector and legions of Silicon Valley workers who commute from San Francisco and Oakland," the study finds. "All of this means that college students who are looking for internships, jobs, and networking opportunities in tech will find opportunities in the San Francisco region."

In other words, San Francisco is great for students who want to work in tech (and can afford to live here in the first place). If they do (and can), then they'll likely fit right in — as Twitter's 2015 frat-themed office party made clear.

Related: Supes Vote To Make City College Free

Sixty people are in the running to become San Francisco's next chief of police, the Police Commission announced Thursday night, but persistent questions over the acting chief's educational background might end up putting the number closer to 59.

As previously reported, the search for SF's next top cop has been a fraught one, with help-wanted ads going up and down, as well as questions raised over why the job description for the best-paid police chief in the US ($316,732 with benefits) doesn't require a college degree.

Following unrelenting rumors that the search for chief was "rigged" in Chaplin's favor, the acting chief told the Chron's Matier and Ross that, hey, “I probably have 200 credits,” and a college degree...but wouldn't say from where.

But late Thursday that mystery was cleared up — somewhat — as Chaplin told the Ex "that he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University, but did not specify which campus, when he received his degree or what he studied."

Even curiouser, "none of the three CSU entities could find any record that Chaplin attended or graduated from CSU." they report.

Within an hour of the Examiner's report Thursday evening, SFPD's media relations office circulated a press release "on behalf of the SF Police Commission," Officer Grace Gatpandan wrote, a release that appears to make the thus-far troubled process appear more transparent. Here's their statement in full. Does it make you feel any better?

Previously: Questions Raised As Interim Police Chief Refuses To Say Where He Went To College
SFPD's Acting Top Cop Says He Wants The Chief Job For Real
Confusion At SF's Police Commission As Police Chief Help Wanted Ad Goes Up And Down

UC Berkeley is being evacuated after an underground fire. pic.twitter.com/XDeuSiI52K

— Joe Vazquez (@joenewsman) October 1, 2013

A power outage at UC Berkeley prefaced a major explosion on Monday night, resulting in a campus-wide evacuation. The fire, it seems, stemmed from a vault under California Hall close to the center of campus, with the initial blast reportedly shooting up in the air some 20-40 feet.

Eyewitness Peter Myers notes, "There was an explosion at about 6:40, followed instantly by fireball coming out of a manhole cover that came about 30-40 feet high. I guess that was the old generator they were talking about." While Cal sophomore Jennifer Han explains to The Daily Californian, "At first, I was really scared because I thought the explosion was big enough to produce a shock wave ... You heard it first, and then there were flames."

The Daily Californian has more:

According to [UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode], the explosion appears to be related to vandalism discovered by the campus late last week. Vandals were stealing or attempting to steal copper grounding wire from an electrical system not readily visible, and the damage appears to be more extensive than initially believed, he said.

After the explosion appeared to come from a manhole grate, campus police advised students to stay away from any manholes on campus. Officials are not allowing anyone to enter the campus and have instructed everyone to evacuate through the north and west entrances.

At least one student was whisked to a nearby hospital to be treated for minor injuries. A handful of others had to be rescued from elevators that stopped during the outage.

Below, the jarring blaze shooting from the vault:

The campus remains closed as of tonight. No word yet as to whether or not classes will resume on Tuesday.

UPDATE: Updates regarding class schedule will happen early tomorrow morning (Oct. 1) at around 5 AM. We're also hearing word, via commenter Michael Ball, that the campus has reopened.

UPDATE II: Things are back to normal, more or less, with only 11 buildings sans power. Most classes have resumed.

[Chron]
[Daily Cal]
[SF Appeal]

Fancy that: a San Ramon fraternity brother, studying and partying hard at Dartmouth, turned himself in this week after he urinated on a woman. Hanover police report the vile dousing happened on Friday, July 5, at the Alpha Delta fraternity. The 27-year-old victim was part of a film crew at the frat house when the incident took place. She later went to police.

Mercury News reports: "After multiple witness interviews, police issued an arrest warrant Thursday for Christopher Kipouras of San Ramon. Kipouras was booked on a public urination charge. He's scheduled to be arraigned in September."

According to his glowing athletics page, Kipouras is a tennis player at the tony institution of higher learning who "plans to study science or engineering at Dartmouth."

In addition to (allegedly) crude behavior from their brethren, Alpha Delta also faces up to $100,000 fines if convicted of providing alcohol to minors stemming from a separate October 2011 incident. The frat house was also the prototype for National Lampoon's Animal House.

A gaggle of young adults peeled off their clothing for the semesterly Naked Run last week at UC Berkeley. Lots of jiggling breasts and male bits can be seen in this video, so: NSFW.

Cal's legendary Naked Run showcases a reported "30-minute rush of ecstasy to the halls" of Moffitt Library. Also of note? According to UC Berkeley's the Daily Clog, who participated in the presumably liberating jog, hardly anyone got wasted prior to running. (!) Naked runner/budding journalist Katherine Velicki reports, "While some participants may have slipped under our radar, we found that the vast majority did not drink at all before disrobing."

Laura Zepeda -- clearly too frazzled by studying to hold her phone horizontally, so let's all give her a break -- took the following footage of the students releasing some steam. Enjoy.

Over the weekend, a student at St. Mary's college was sexually assaulted inside of her dorm room. The student reportedly met her assailant in Berkeley and invited him back to the Moraga campus. He then attacked her once inside her room. The assault occurred between 3 and 6:30 a.m.

"This is not an incident where a student or someone else was stalking or lurking on the campus," Saint Mary's spokesman Mike McAlpin explained during a press conference. "This was a betrayal of trust. The young woman invited the man onto the campus with her. Her trust was breached."

So far, not much of a description of the attacker had been released. According to KRON 4 Morning News, he has been only described as a "white man in his 20s."

Information about the suspect should be directed to the Moraga Police Department at 925-284-5010 or the

[CoCo Times]
[KRON]

If you haven't already heard, the kids are extra slutty these days. And yes, we're sex-positive and everything. But we'd like to point you to this fine new servicey Facebook page called UC Berkeley Hook-Ups, where students can post anonymously to seek out the missed connections from their last weekend of wanton frat-house-bathroom intercourse.

Thrillist points us to the page, which is as amazing as Craigslist Missed Connections only moreso, because it involves only (presumably) attractive twentysomethings and does not have horrifying, sad, or stalkerish posts mixed in. Also, half of the posts are just angry/funny rants to the gross and regrettable people these kids might not want to directly get in touch with, so that's fun too.

Example 1:

#23 To the guy I left in the showers at Fiji,

I was a really dirty girl that night... Literally. You took me to the showers to wash off ;) Things were getting steamy but I had to go. Sorry I left you in the shower naked and alone. Next time, bubblebath?

Sincerely,
Shower girl.

Example 2:

#21 To the Norwegian chick i met at FIJI, doing blow off each other was great....especially when you did it off my dick with your mouth following by giving me the best head Ive had in past weekends. I think your name was Line.

Example 3:

#4 I got home from a wild night at the frats only to find my roommates having an orgy in my room. The man I brought home with me got an insta boner and we decided to join in on all the fun. yolo took on a whole new meaning.

[Thrillist]

The 21-year-old woman who told police she was beaten and raped while walking along a wooded area on the UCSC campus has reportedly confessed to investigators that, in fact, the attack was a hoax. The unidentified woman could face criminal charges for making the false report.

"The report of this incident has very understandably created a deep sense of unease among UCSC students, staff, and faculty, as well as residents of the Santa Cruz area," UCSC Police Chief Nader Oweis said in a press release, according to Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Before any rape apologists get on their high, sanity-estranged horses in the comments, we direct you to the graph from The Enliven Project (via Jez). It uses data from Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey and FBI reports to show both how little rapes are reported and how rarely rapists go to jail. And way down at the bottom you can see how few false accusations are.

[Santa Cruz Sentinel]

Santa Cruz police released a sketch of a man who beat and raped a visiting 21-year-old woman visiting the UCSC campus on Sunday afternoon. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the suspect is "believed to be about 5 feet 10 inches tall with a stocky build, dark hair and green eyes. He had a mustache and goatee, and was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue T-shirt at the time." He fled toward Steinhart Way shortly after the attack.

While walking a wooded path between the Upper Quarry amphitheater and the Classroom Unit buildings along a path at 12:30 p.m., the suspect struck her in the head and torso several times before assaulting her. The woman called 911 and was treated at a nearby hospital.

Police have posted these flyers around campus.

Campus authorities have alerted students to be on alert. Any information about the case should be directed to UC Santa Cruz authorities at 831-459-2231. Anonymous reports can made by calling 831-459-3TIP or via online at http://police.ucsc.edu.

A 21-year-old woman survived being raped and beaten while visiting the UCSC campus Sunday afternoon. The suspect, described as "a white man in his 30s with pale skin and a round-shaped face," attacked her around 12:30 p.m. as she walked between the Upper Quarry Amphitheater and the Classroom Unit buildings.

Santa Cruz Sentinel has more details on the suspect:

He was described as a white man in his 30s with pale skin and a round-shaped face. He was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and 200 pounds with a muscular or stocky build with dark-black, medium-length hair and green eyes. The suspect also had a dark, full mustache and goatee.

He wore a dark blue T-shirt with lettering on the front, dark blue Levi-type jeans and a black belt with a silver buckle, as well as Oakley-style sunglasses on top of his head. He had a tattoo on his upper-right bicep area and spoke with a voice that sounded like a "deep growl" and smelled of cigarettes...

Campus authorities have alerted students to be on alert. Any information about the case should be directed to UC Santa Cruz authorities at 831-459-2231. Anonymous reports can made by calling 831-459-3TIP or via online at http://police.ucsc.edu.