Mount Tamalpais College

Last updated
Mount Tamalpais College
Formation2003
Type 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Location
Executive Director
Jody Lewen
Budget
$3,000,000
Staff
29
Volunteers
over 350 [1]
Website www.mttamcollege.edu
Formerly called
Prison University Project

Mount Tamalpais College, formerly known as the Prison University Project, is a two year liberal arts college that offers an associate's degree program in Liberal Arts and intensive college preparatory courses in math and writing to mainline residents of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. Courses are all taught on-site by volunteers, most of them graduate students, instructors, and faculty members from San Francisco Bay Area colleges and universities. [2] Until 2020, the college was operated as an extension site of Patten University by the Prison University Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. [3] All credits and degrees were issued by Patten. Since 2020, Mount Tamalpais College has issued its own credits and degrees as a Candidate for Accreditation by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The college achieved Initial Accreditation in January 2022.

Contents

In addition to its academic programs and support services for students, Mount Tamalpais College disseminates information on prison education to the public at large. [1] From November 2007 to January 2008 it organized an exhibition at the San Francisco Public Library, including photographs by Heather Rowley of everyday scenes at San Quentin and essays by students in the College Program about their experiences; [4] [5] a similar exhibition on Alcatraz Island ran from June 1 to October 22, 2008. [6] [7] The Prison University Project received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in September 2016. [8]

Background

The Prison University Project has its origins in the aftermath of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which made it illegal for prisoners to receive Pell Grants, reducing the number of college degree-granting programs in United States prisons from its peak of over 350 to fewer than 10. [9] [10] The College Program at San Quentin was founded in fall of 1996, based entirely on volunteer teaching and organization. As the College Program expanded and efforts to raise funds increased, the Prison University Project was founded in 2003. [11] It changed its name to Mount Tamalpais College in 2020. [12]

The College Program at San Quentin

About 300 student inmates are enrolled in the College Program at San Quentin each semester. [13] A high school diploma or its equivalent is required to participate, but most students nevertheless begin with the College Program's non-credit preparatory courses in Mathematics and English. [14] Associate's degree course offerings have included Calculus, Biology, Environmental Science, Chemistry, [9] English, and Composition. [15] 20 courses are offered per semester. Most courses are worth 3 credits, with 60 being required for graduation. Courses are student centered and culturally responsive, and Mount Tamalpais College staff assists instructors and tutors in maintaining these practices through trainings, syllabus consultation, and semester-long support. Students pay no fees or tuition. All textbooks and school supplies are provided by the program and through donations from publishers. As of 2018, 162 men had completed their degrees at San Quentin.

The College Program has been cited by both instructors and student inmates, [16] as well as corrections officers, [15] as exerting a positive influence on the lives of participants and improving their chances of contributing productively to society upon their release. Prison officials and inmates believe that the program helps make the environment inside San Quentin safer, and inmates and their families say that the program has inspired inmates' children to better educate themselves and help break the cycle of intergenerational crime and incarceration. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University</span> Public university system in California, US

The California State University is a public university system in California, and the largest public university system in the United States. It consists of 23 campuses and seven off-campus centers, which together enroll 457,992 students and employ 56,256 faculty and staff members. In California, it is one of the three public higher education systems, along with the University of California and the California Community Colleges systems. The CSU system is officially incorporated as The Trustees of the California State University, and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcatraz Island</span> Island in San Francisco Bay, California, U.S.

Alcatraz Island is a small island 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marin County, California</span> County in California, United States

Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco State University</span> Public university in San Francisco, California

San Francisco State University is a public research university in San Francisco. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is part of the California State University system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Quentin Rehabilitation Center</span> Mens prison in California, US

San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.

St. Patrick's Seminary and University (STPSU) in Menlo Park, California, is a Roman Catholic undergraduate and graduate seminary whose primary mission is the formation of priests for dioceses in California and the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Allan Hancock College is a public community college in Santa Maria, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Monterrey</span> Private university in Nuevo León, Mexico

The University of Monterrey is a private, Catholic, secondary, and higher education institution in city-municipality San Pedro Garza García, Greater Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UC Berkeley School of Education</span> School at the University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley School of Education, or the Berkeley School of Education (BSE), is one of fifteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. The BSE specializes in teacher training and education research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Names University</span> Closed Catholic university in Oakland, California, U.S.

Holy Names University was a private Roman Catholic university in Oakland, California. It was founded in 1868 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary with which the university remained affiliated until it closed in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James A. Johnston</span> Prison warden of Alcatraz

James Aloysius Johnston was an American politician and prison warden who served as the first and longest-serving warden of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, serving from 1934 to 1948. He had earlier served as wardens of California state prisons at Folsom (1912-1913) and San Quentin (1914-1924).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miran Edgar Thompson</span> American murderer (1917–1948)

Miran Edgar Thompson was an inmate of Alcatraz whose participation in an attempted escape on May 2, 1946, led to his execution in the gas chamber of San Quentin. At the time of the Battle of Alcatraz, Thompson was serving life plus 99 years for murder of Texan police officer Detective Lemuel Dodd Savage, 52. He also pulled armed robberies in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. He had notoriously bad luck when getting caught, but extremely good luck at escaping from jail. He had been arrested eight times and held in small jails, and had escaped every time. Thompson had a record of eight escapes from custody by the time he was transferred to Alcatraz in October 1945.

The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is a nonprofit cooperating association that supports park stewardship and conservation in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area—the most visited national park in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Carpenter</span> American serial killer on death row

David Joseph Carpenter, known as The Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist known for stalking and murdering a variety of individuals on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California. He attacked at least ten individuals and was convicted in seven murders and was confirmed to be the killer in an eighth murder; Carpenter is also suspected in two additional killings. Two victims, Steven Haertle and Lois Rinna, mother of television personality Lisa Rinna, survived. Carpenter used a .38 caliber handgun in all but one of the killings. A .44 caliber handgun was used in the killing of Edda Kane on Mount Tamalpais.

James Tramel was an Episcopal priest who was ordained while serving prison time for murder, and the first convict ever ordained in the Episcopal Church while still in prison. Soon after being paroled from prison in 2006, he became rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco. He has been a public spokesman for prisoners' rights, testifying in favor of parole for juvenile offenders and supporting prisoner-victim reconciliation programs.

Jeanne Woodford served as the Undersecretary and Director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). She is most known as the Warden of San Quentin State Prison(1999-2004, where she oversaw four executions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary</span> Island prison in San Francisco Bay

United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.

The Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) rose in 1968 as a coalition of ethnic student groups on college campuses in California in response to the Eurocentric education and lack of diversity at San Francisco State College and University of California, Berkeley. The TWLF was instrumental in creating and establishing Ethnic Studies and other identity studies as majors in their respective schools and universities across the United States.

Hack Reactor is a software engineering coding bootcamp education program founded in San Francisco in 2012. The program is remote-only and offered in 12-week beginner full-time and 19-week intermediate full-time formats.

Ronnie Goodman was a homeless artist who lived on the streets of San Francisco, California. Goodman became a local celebrity after the quality of his artwork gained recognition. He was also known as a distance runner who competed in local marathons. Goodman's character, artwork and biography which appeared in newspapers, Runner's World magazine and documentaries, helped humanize the homeless crisis in San Francisco. Goodman died in his encampment in the Mission District of San Francisco on August 7, 2020, aged 60.

References

  1. 1 2 "Prison University Project Today". Prison University Project web page. Archived from the original on 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2012-09-21.
  2. ↑ "A Visit To San Quentin". Larry King Live . 2006-06-07. CNN. Transcript. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  3. ↑ Fabros, Mellisa (2007). "UC Berkeley graduate students teach science at San Quentin". Berkeley Science Review (13): 20. Archived from the original on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  4. ↑ "The San Francisco Public Library Hosts Who We Are: Essays and Photographs of Students at San Quentin State Prison". I Love Libraries . American Library Association. Archived from the original on 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  5. ↑ "Past Exhibitions at the Library - 2007". San Francisco Public Library web page. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  6. ↑ "IS IT SAFE? An Exhibition at Alcatraz". Prison University Project web page. Archived from the original on 2013-04-15. Retrieved 2008-07-13.
  7. ↑ Rix, Kate (September 2008). "San Quentin's Campus". The East Bay Monthly . Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  8. ↑ "Remarks by the President at the Presentation of the 2015 National Medals of the Arts and Humanities". Obama White House Archives. September 22, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Wang, Linda (October 2007). "Chemistry Behind Bars". Chemical & Engineering News. 85 (43): 17–22. doi:10.1021/cen-v085n043.p017 . Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  10. ↑ SpearIt. “Uncertainty Ahead: Update on Pell Grant Funding for Prisoners,” in The State of Criminal Justice 2017 (American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section 2017).
  11. ↑ "History and Background". Prison University Project web page. Archived from the original on 2008-06-06. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  12. ↑ College, Mt Tamalpais (2020-12-17). "Humanist Grantee Spotlight: Mt. Tamalpais College". Foundation Beyond Belief. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  13. ↑ "Prison University at San Quentin Prison". Richmond Confidential. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  14. ↑ "College Preparatory Program". Prison University Project web page. Archived from the original on 2007-12-04. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  15. 1 2 Bova, Carla (2007-04-21). "A 'zealot' for higher education wins award for teaching at San Quentin". Marin Independent Journal. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  16. ↑ "The promise of higher education at San Quentin". UC Berkeley News. University of California, Berkeley . Retrieved 2008-04-22.
  17. ↑ "Inside San Quentin, Inmates Go To College". Morning Edition . 2011-06-20. NPR. Transcript. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.