Next B.M.O.C. And Just Saying ‘Ngo’
April 7, 2008
Vietnamese homonyms — you got win-win with San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen and Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen. … Now Steve Ngo, attorney for Minami Tamaki LLP, has tossed his name into the hat for San Francisco City College’s trustee board. Ngo has a shot at it with the likelihood that trustee Julio Ramos will run for supervisor. Ngo is supported by Board of Equalization member Betty Yee, state Controller John Chiang, School Board member Eric Mar and Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting. …
NEXT B.M.O.C.: The next “Big Man (or Woman) on Campus” — that is the next chancellor — may depend on whoever controls the majority of the seven-member College Board. … With the departure of Philip Day, the second ever APA chancellor (after Hilary Hsu in the 1980s) could be recruited from a growing pool of APA talent, like Laney College President and former San Francisco School Board member Frank Chong and former San Jose City College President and Santa Monica College’s Chui Lim Tsang, who directed the Community Resources Development Center in the 1980s. … Also add Asian Pacific Fund’s Dr. Chang-Lin Tien Education Leadership winners like U.C. Merced Chancellor Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang, San Jose State University Engineering Dean Belle Wei and Case Western Reserve University Engineering Dean Norman Tien. …
MAJOR ISSUES: The next chancellor will deal with getting the Chinatown campus built, budget cuts and rising student enrollment during a recession on the more than 63,000-student campus (as of fall 2006), where at least two in five students are APA. …
HOW VOTES LINE UP: Trustees Natalie Berg, Rodel Rodis, Lawrence Wong and swing vote Anita Grier are in a shaky majority with the minority of Milton Marks III, Ramos and John Rizzo. The latter challenged Chancellor Day’s management and raised questions about the Chinatown campus, while the majority was solidly for the campus. …
THE FIRING SQUAD: The School Board APA majority of Eric Mar, Hydra Mendoza, Norman Yee and Jane Kim has the unenviable task of laying off 355 of the least senior teachers as mandated by state law. At least one of seven layoffs is APA; APAs comprise more than one-fifth of all district teachers. …
“The Wong” Is Dead: A Contra Costa Times reporter checking to see if I had died in a Tuesday evening Pittsburg car accident on Highway 4 sent a tizzy among AsianWeek’s professionally nosy staff last Wednesday morning. Adding to the anxious speculation was that I wasn’t answering my cell phone or at home. I finally answered finally – only to hear a relieved publisher James Fang yelling ‘you SOB’…. By that time, CoCo Times had posted an online story and I ended up trying to tracking down my sis who lives in Contra Costa and her deputy sheriff husband Kevin Lee who might have received a call about the accident and especially my mom Susan – to spare her any calls and notions of a third family funeral in just five months… CUT TO VOICE MAIL: Of course, mom like son takes a while to answer her cell. According to the Times, a Mercedes in a chain reaction accident “slammed into a 2005 Dodge Neon driven by the Wong.” The Wong? My condolences to Samson Wong, 63, of Antioch…. ANOTHER SAMSON: Years ago, activists scratched their heads about why I would oppose a proposed Visitacion Valley AIDS hospice. Actually a pint-size bible-thumping preacher named Samson Wong was leading a delegation of NIMBY Chinese Americans. To contrast myself, I’m the sinner, I maybe irreverent, but no reverend. As long as my name comes from the New or Old Testament, but not the last testament, we’ll be just fine…
FLY IN THE BOK CHOY: My escape from death’s door made a late lunch a minor incident. After almost chowing down on a steamed and ginger chicken rice entrée, I was dissecting with my fork a dead fried fly uncovered from a bed of bok choy. The SOMA Chinese American cashier said, “I remember you” as she pledged a freebie when I’d return. We will see…
Reach Samson Wong at (415)321-5886 or swong@asianweek.com.
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