Vietnamese Americans spoke @ Board Meeting Nov-14-2006

Good evening Madam President Maria Fuentes, board members, Chancellor Perez, President Coon, President Carreon and attendees.

My name is Tuong Van and I currently serve as the Vietnamese Student Association President at Evergreen Valley College. In recent month, I learned that Chancellor Perez would like to initiative a project “Global Education-Contributing to World Peace” at our colleges. When I heard of the announcement, I was excited about going international until I discovered that Global meant “Going to Vietnam” with a funded-grant to recruit students, implementing a student exchange program, and learn about our culture. I am Vietnamese and there will always be a strong tie between me and Vietnam. However, as a paying student of Evergreen Valley College for the past years, I feel that support services and resources are limited: Currently,

1. I have to wait for hours to see a counselor who speaks Vietnamese since there are only 3 full time at Evergreen to serve over 3,000 students

2. Academically, myself and other Vietnamese ESL students are failing our ESL classes. We don’t have additional vocational programs. If one program is cancelled, it’s not replaced with another. How can I find a job with limited skills?

3. There are not enough Vietnamese staff to support student services needs such as Tutoring, Admissions, Financial Aid, etc

4. There’s not a single Vietnamese Administration on board at this time

I ask the board to reconsider this project “Global Education-Contributing to World Peace and Vietnam”. How can the District meets the needs of other international students such as students from Vietnam, when Chancellor Perez and President Coon have not met the needs of the Vietnamese students at Evergreen like myself? Further, if you would like to learn about Vietnamese culture please get to know the Vietnamese students at the District,

Please get to know me, I have lived here in America and my Vietnamese-American Culture and experience are quite different from those in students in Vietnam.
Please help me succeed academically,
Please prepare me for a promising career.

I have the opportunity to meet with Chancellor Perez and President Coon to voice my concerns. In addition, I have also presented a petition. As of today, I have received no feedback. I like to submit this petition for public records.

TuongVan Nguyen
Vietnamese Student Association President at Evergreen Valley College

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Good Evening.

My name is Huong Nguyen. I am a taxpayer and I am a resident of District 8.

One of the missions of the community colleges is to serve the community. We, the Vietnamese community of the Bay Area have not received information or being invited to partake in the planning of the GEO Grant. We are mainly ANTI-Communists and we have come to America as political refugees. The Vietnamese Government is our enemy, and it will remain that way until we see substantial changes in basic human rights over there. Asking or expecting the Vietnamese Community here to make peace, or to reconcile with the Vietnamese Government in Vietnam is like asking the Cuban community in Miami to make peace or to reconcile with Fidel Castro. It is insensitive. It is provocative. It is in total disregard of our wishes and our contribution to this country and to this community here. And, against the mission of San Jose/Evergreen Valley College District, it has nothing to do with "serving the community." Perhaps it might only serve the interests of very few individuals, under the great name of Global Education.

The proposal indicated that Ms. Ho and Mr. Vu represent the Vietnamese Community. I would like to present to the Board of our media presses and information regarding these individuals and their pro-Vietnamese Government. Clearly, these individuals DO NOT represent us. Therefore, I ask that the board cancel this GEO initiative.

Thank you.

Huong Nguyen


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Dear Board members:

My name is Nguyen Vu Tru. I am President of the Vietnamese Buddhist Association of America. I come here today to protest against this College District Board for having approved a plan to implement the so-called GEO with regard to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In your related documents, you stated that ắthere is a strong demand from the communityă ẫ ắ the Vietnamese community is interested enough to conduct a fund-raiser to support the programăẫ..ăan intensive promotional program in local Vietnamese newspapers and radio stationsăẫ. ắwe will promote the programẫ. within the Vietnamese community in Santa Clara County through the Viet Mercury and other Vietnamese media.ă With the above sentences, your Board have made known that the local Vietnamese community is deeply involved in this project.

I want to tell your Board that members of my Association, including myself in particular and the Vietnamese community in general, we have not heard a single news about this program though we have been in Santa Clara county for almost 30 years. As members of the Vietnamese community that the two Colleges of your district has duties to serve, we are entitled to fully know what is going to happen. And, with the GEO, this is not the case.

My questions to you are:

1) Why did your Board do such secret dealings with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam?
2) Why have your Board lied about this project when Chancellor Perez told members of the Vietnamese community at a meeting with her and Trustee Hobbs last week that ắ we do not have yet a plană? You know that the project has been in place. Money from the Federal Government until titles III and V is available. And SJCC is launching a campaign to recruit students to go to Vietnam in January 07ẫ.
3) Knowingly making false statements in order to get money from the Department of Education under titles III and V constitutes a criminal offense. How could you answer to this question?

We demand: 1) that this project be cancelled. 2) And we expect answers from you to these questions.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Nguyen Vu Tru,





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My name is Le Chau. I represent the Vietnamese Women for Social Justices in Northern California. Over 100 family members of this association are residents in Santa Clara County. In its meeting on November 12, the Board of Directors of my Association designated me to show up here and publicly voice against this GEO project.

Before raising questions, I want to let you know that we are very disappointed about what has been going on here and inform you about our strong feeling on how you have treated Vietnamese students, Vietnamese teaching and support staff in the two colleges under your leadership. We will deal with about these issues in coming months.

The reason for protest is: Under the SJCC project, Government officials (members of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam)ẫ will be brought to SJCC for English, technology, business trainingẫ

My association asked your Board a question about use of taxpayers' money.

The amount for the project is $US300.000. It is a matching fund. Part of it comes from Titles III and V from the US Department of Education. Why does this Board use American taxpayers' money to serve foreigners?

As taxpayers, we strongly object to such use of public funds. Using public funds to serve a certain group of people only under this circumstance, your Board have violated the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, because our children living in this county are left out, and specifically discriminated against.

I am afraid that some one involved in this project would be legally responsible for this scheme if not all Board members are.

We would appreciate it very much, if your Board could give me answer to the serious issue in writing, and I will report it to the Board of my association, before we could move on.


Mrs Le Chau

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My name is Do Luong. I am a member of the Vietnamese American Council of Voters of Santa Clara County.


I heard that your GEO is designed to serve the communists from Vietnam: recruiting students from Vietnam, bringing government officials to SJCC for training, sending Vietnamese students to Vietnam to study languages and cultures. In fact, Board members surely know that only children from party members who are very, very rich are able to come here; government officials who are communist party members. With those two groups of people, if they come here, they have to pay for their arrangements. SJCC has no duties to set up such a huge program paid by American taxpayers; and finally, sending students from the City College to Vietnam to study Vietnamese classes is not acceptable. They are conducted by the Foreign Ministry Committee on Overseas Vietnamese, an organ of the communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) that is set up by CPV Politburo Resolution # 36 and that has a mission to control Vietnamese abroad. With this way you help the CPV to brainwash Vietnamese students. The classes are not conducted by an academic institution. (document attached)


Now I talk about two issues in your GEO project that concerns Vietnamese:


1) Expansion of classes on Vietnamese languages to classes on Culture, History and Vietnam War and consultation with communist scholars in Vietnam about teaching materials and contents of courses to be conducted.


2) Establishing sister relationships with provincial colleges in Vietnam.


For the 1st issue, you are going to teach classes on culture, history and Vietnam War, and teaching materials supplied by communist scholars in Hanoi. Do you know that Marxist-Leninist ideology is still currently taught in schools in Vietnam? With this, you impose this type of ideology on our children i.e. you intend to brainwash them. We strongly object to this scheme. Besides, community colleges are designed to serve the community and the local community has a right to have an input in the college curriculum. When your board sent Ho Le Mai Huong, Vu Duc Vuong and others to Vietnam to consult communist scholars as stated in the project, your board has illegally expropriated the right of this community to have a say in the curriculum and contents of teaching materials.


For the 2nd issue, we were sad to run away from the totalitarian regime. It is a heartbroken tragedy. Now your board tries to bring VPC cadres in. Secret agents of the CPV will follow us here. They will blackmail us and we know that security agents of the US government would not do anything to stop it. The communist agents would be more skillful in clandestine activities and FBI agents' hands are tied by American laws, and therefore our lives in America are not safe. If this program is implemented, it is you who are perpetrators of this crime that will do harms to us. Your board will be liable for all consequences.
I demand that this program be abolished.


Do Luong



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November 14, 2006

Dear Board Members:


My name is Dr. Vuong Pham, spokesman for the Assembly of Veterans of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces-Northwest region, of which the headquarter is in San Jose. On behalf of the Assembly, I am strongly opposed to the Initiative to set up a GEO with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.


On your Oct. 26, 2006 Newsletter you sated that ắour District has a responsibility to contribute to world peaceă though as a community college, your primary functions are:
1) To provide training to local residents with updated skills for them to enter or reenter the job markets,
2) To help local enterprises meet their needs of workers.


Given the fact that you want to achieve the world peace objective, you have gone too far, including use of taxpayers' money for it.


In fact, what have you presented in your all related documents reflects something else. Board members like Okamura and Hobbs and SJCC staff went to the Socialist of Republic of Vietnam (SRV) selling the GEO program. It is OK to sell your program. However, you solicit to bring to SJCC for training SRV officials who are communist cadres or communist intelligence agents into our local community. As a consequence, our community safety is at stake. Moreover, you use taxpayers' money to pay for the program for the benefits of the communists. If it is an exchange program as seen throughout the country in order to achieve ắworld peaceă as you think, the communists have to make arrangements for coming here at their expenses, but not at the American taxpayers' expenses.


My other question is whether or not you have a war with the communist country. For this purpose, you are given a mission by yourselves to achieve peace? Why don't you go to Iraq, North Korea or Iran to help bring their leaders in for peace? It is no doubt that you have a real intention to mislead the public on this subject matter.


In the name of "world peace", your Board have abused its power to do something else that would do harm to us, as refugees. You have been truly an instrument to the totalitarian communist regime of Vietnam and thus intend to create an unstable situation in our community, instead of peace.


I remind you that those who are involved in this kind of business will be responsible for the acts. We never forget it.


Thank you for your listening.

Dr. Pham, Duc Vuong