Alumni Newsletter
Alumni Spotlight: Steve Wittmann
SCC Alumnus and LRCF Student Emergency Fund Supporter
Can you tell us about your earliest memories of Sacramento City College and what drew you here as a student?
In 1967 I graduated from a very small high school (112 seniors) so coming to SCC was this great opportunity to meet new people, many new people. My brother was a student at the time, and he introduced me to his friends. The idea of hanging in the cafeteria and on the quad was a completely new experience...it was like an extra few units; instead of studying to make sure my grades were good it was an exercise in interacting with new and interesting people. That first semester I had more people in my classes than I had in my entire graduating class. I was living at the family home in Hollywood Park about a mile south of the campus and walked to school (or hitchhiked) every day. So, SCC was close-by and affordable. My father had died when I was in eighth grade; my family didn’t have money for a four-year college—although my dream was to attend Reed College in Portland—so City College was my path.
You’ve described SCC as part of your family history. This is an interesting concept that I think is mostly associated with 4 years and “legacy” students. I’ve been hearing and writing about more of these types of stories. Can you expand on this?
My first year at SCC I attended along with my brother and the following year my sister joined us. Years later, both my niece and nephew attend City College as well. After all, we lived in South Sac...it was the school that everyone went to unless they had the means to go to Sac State or a 4 year. The tens of thousands of us that have attended during the last 60 or so years have shared space and generated experiences that have marked all of us. We can still talk about the ‘pigs in a blanket’ from the cafeteria, the ceramics rooms at the rear of the auditorium building, attending plays, the light-filed ‘old’ library, and the tower over the arch with the philosophy classroom—without air-conditioning during a very warm September. The smells of the gym and pool, archery class in William Land Park...an hour or more to just talk between classes.
When you first came to SCC, what did it mean for you to start here before transferring to a four-year university?
Since around age 10 I was certain that I wanted to study history and go to college, to teach. The affordability of community college and how close it was made starting on the degree easy for my 17-year-old self. While I knew I would be a transfer student I wanted to take full advantage of the college experience during my first two years as an adult. I made new friends, I move out from my family home, I was a student with what we now say is agency...I could enroll in classes, drop classes, attend or not attend. The consequences also were mine. All freshmen go through this, regardless of being at a two-year or four-year school. But some of what I experienced was made easier by being close-by those things that had previously sustained me—a home-cooked meal, access to laundry, rent-free living, and a car.
During your time as a student, you were already advocating for equity and standing up for Black and Brown students. What sparked that passion in you?
The struggle for basic rights, as highlighted by the civil rights efforts in the last half of the 1950s and primarily in the South, was an inspiration. By age ten I was already reading the local newspaper as well as Life magazine and Newsweek. The idea that a society could improve and become better had tremendous power and these pictures and stories provided a focus. I followed the bus boycotts, the lunch-counter sit-ins, and the marches. I knew that the US could become a more just and equitable country if the people took up the effort to say what was right and demand that it occur. In 1959 that ten-year old was already committed to learning about the struggle for a better country and to participate in that fight. In the early 60s the struggles for national liberation in much of the world provided a path to round-out my opinions to include the fight against colonialism. People all over the world, in Africa, in Asia, throughout Latin America, and in the United States all wished for a better life, more freedom, education and health. The racial struggles in the US, in South Africa, the fight for indigenous peoples’ rights and the farmworker movement added to a broader global understanding of the causes of these efforts and the international perspective that was needed. The free speech movement in 1964 crystallized that students too needed to have rights. That we should not being told what to think but taught how to research and think and question.
Looking back, what moments of protest or advocacy at SCC stand out most to you?
What proceeded my activism at SCC were the things happening on college campuses in the late 50s and the early 60s, as mentioned the free speech movement and how the opposition to US imperialism in Vietnam became a catalyst to a broader critique of how to improve the country and world. In high school and college during the 1960s events became a laboratory for understanding and for deeper thinking of why we were not wisely using our gifts. As I entered SCC in September 1967, the civil rights movement and the anti-war activism were coming toward a merger. Talk and discussion were everywhere on campus, here and throughout the nation. The need for change was apparent. Why didn’t SCC have a Black Studies program? Why were the city council districts elected city-wide, denying representation for citizens in Oak Park and other minority-majority areas? Why were the city police and county sheriff departments so brutal to residents and unaccountable? Why was the county sheriff an open racist without rebuke? And most important when were improvements going to happen? Like thousands of other SCC students these questions were our daily topics. We wanted answers, many of which the administration of the college did not believe we were entitled to. Activism became our path. I came to understand I was not merely advocating for the rights of others but that everyone’s rights must be respected. The activities at SCC helped make me the person I was then and who I am today.
How do you see the equity work you were part of then connected to SCC’s commitment to equity today?
The struggle during the late 60s and early 70s led to many changes in the local colleges and other institutions of our society. Deeply held traditions were fought against and were forced by progressive action to change. This process took years, back and forth. People who opposed some of those changes had to retire or were let go. But eventually many of the old ways, those ways that were hostile to political diversity, to greater equality and the creation of an inclusive society, fell apart. Change did happen, not all the needed changes, but many of the most necessary changes did occur. Clearly the fight continues, but today SCC and Los Rios, along with many of the other colleges and institutions of society made life- long commitments to equality. These efforts are on-going, and they will always be so. We cannot claim victory for all people and then lose our vigilance.
Now you’re returning to SCC as an art student — what inspired you to come back and pursue this new creative path?
Pursuing art, reading about it, going to museums and galleries, attending openings and art performances has been part of my life since being a high school student. While my college major was history with a minor in humanities and studying widely in English literature and economics, I was always interested in knowing what was happening in the arts. Upon retirement, after a career of more than 36 years I knew that keeping an outward focused life was important. I enrolled in three art courses at SCC from 2009-2011 and then became active in the life-long learning program for senior adults, the Renaissance Society at CSUS, enrolling over the next 12 years in watercolor and intermittently in photography. In 2018 I became the leader of the watercolor group.
By 2024 I wanted to expand my participation in the arts and explore three-dimensional work, printing methods, silk-screening and more broadly art history. SCC’s comprehensive art program offered that opportunity. All of this is a continuous, if shifting, line in my life post-retirement. I also wanted to become more involved in student life, to understand what today’s students face, what their aspirations and struggles are and how they are moving forward in their lives.
What role does art play in your life now, and how does it connect to your journey of lifelong learning?
Fifty plus years ago I began collecting artwork, mostly paintings. As additional income became available, purchasing pieces initially from friends who were CSUS art majors, was something I did; not unlike cleaning and cooking, going to school and working. This has continued (except that working part!). Nearly every part of my day involves discovery of beauty, in nature and in created things. Patterns, colors, ideas, shadows and shades—they are everywhere we just have to look. My SCC art instructor from 2009 taught her students how to see things— really see things— so we could know it and render it to paper or canvas. This way of looking cannot be unlearned and it becomes a wonderful gift. My previous pursuit of academic study taught that gift about facts as well as fiction in literature and intellectual life; a dozen years ago this got reinforced with art appreciation and art production. Along the way, while being at CSUS for weekly watercolor studio sessions, I visited the various galleries on campus and started to accelerate my collection of student art. The walls of my home are now filled with those purchases and tell their own story. We can all draw, regardless of what we initially think. We can do it once, and we can do it many times; additional practice will make it better. Exposure to art, made by a wide diversity of people, teaches us, opens new paths to our own creativity and brings peace and joy.
You’ve become a generous supporter of the Student Emergency Fund. What motivated you to give back in this way?
When I was attending graduate school during the early 1970s, I was impressed by the efforts being made by a new organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center from Montgomery, Alabama. They went after the KKK, the White Citizen Councils, local sheriffs, and the state laws that denied people the right to vote, to serve on juries, and to elect people who supported their interests. SPLC lived in the belly of the beast and yet they were brave. Support for organizations that support civil rights efforts is necessary. Starting when I didn’t make much money, giving to progressive charities seemed to be the correct thing to do...not as a one-off but routinely, with commitment. During the later years of our lives many of us become reflective, to use an artist’s term. For many of us that means providing an inheritance to our family and sometimes also with a donation to our favorite charity. This is a good thing. But some of us also come to understand that those that follow us might already have an education, good paying jobs, security and so we ask: should we only add to that wealth, or should we consider how we got to the situation we currently enjoy? That process for me meant that what was fundamental to my life really was my education. That 17 year-old who started at SCC in September 1967 and who transferred to CSUS in February 1970 had been transformed during those first five semesters from an adolescent into an activist adult...with an idea of where I was heading, a plan of how to get there and tools and motivation to attain a positive and successful life as I defined it and as duty required.
Why do you believe it’s so important to support students who face unexpected crises? Can you share any personal experiences that shaped your understanding of what it means for students to have access to that kind of support?
When I was 13 my father died (at age 45), I had two siblings and a 40-year-old mother who did not know how to dive a car, write a check, and had not worked for 21 years. My father was a World War II veteran and my family benefited from survivor benefits through both the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Administration. While those funds were not large, they made the difference in my being able to attend college full time. Without them it would have been so easy to accept an entry level job and stick to it but without the benefit of a degree in broadening my world view and preparing me for advanced study. My path would take additional years, if at all.
Most of us growing up, in the early years of our schooling and careers are just one small bump away from a frustrating setback if not a complete failure. The broken-down car which is necessary to get to our job and/or school, the loss of a roommate we rely on for rent sharing, a medical issue, an arrest, all of these things can interrupt or end our education. As a society we can and should fix any of these problems and set young people back on the path of completing their education. For some such crises might occur more than once and we need to be there each time. If those people in the 1930’s who established Social Security had not thought to create a survivor benefits program my path would have been so much more difficult. And each month from the time I was 13 until age 22 there was a small but important check that was sent my way.... every month! It made a difference. And now I can make a difference to a new generation of education seekers.
What advice would you share with today’s SCC students who may be struggling financially, socially, or emotionally?
Make friends, even one, with your fellow students, with your professors, with all the support staff at SCC, with your neighbors, co-workers, family. Make sure at least one person knows what is happening to you and tell them how you feel, what you fear, and how you are brave. Share the good and the bad and all the stuff in between. Please do not become isolated. Please make this human contact not artificial intelligence.
Become aware of assistance that SCCs Student Services offer. Do not become embarrassed to ask for help. These systems, just like Social Security was for me, were established to be there when needed.
When you think about your journey from SCC student to advocate, professional, artist, and now donor, what does “full circle” mean to you personally?
Today I am a returning student at SCC, seeking a second AA, but really it also feels as if I am an entering freshman. I am learning so much from my fellow students; in my current class we have just started our fourth project for the semester and the first one, that is a group project. So, I see that for me the full circle again includes all that you ask in this question but also that of current students. In addition to learning about three-dimensional design I am learning how current students learn, work, and live...what they care about, how culture sculpts them. I want this information and experience to assist me in better crafting how my role as donor should work and what priorities I want to support.
How would you describe the SCC spirit to someone who’s never set foot on campus?
When I returned as a student to SCC on August 25, 2025, I walked toward my classroom and was delighted, and surprised, to hear a piano playing on the north side of the quad; that still happens most days. Students gave directions to each other that first day as well—so many of us were uncertain where our classrooms were. The Art Department’s assistant made lemonade and had a bowl of candy available. She also helped me navigate Canvas (the torturous application that guides students/faculty/services on this and many other campuses). I had reason to go to the library to find out the date of my initial arrival on campus 58 years earlier. The information desk directed me to the third floor and the archives office. Everyone was so helpful. The months before my return the employees in Student Services and the Counseling Office made my transition so much easier...they went out of their way to find my, very, old records from the 1960’s and to aid me to become a returning new student in the 2020’s. All these small things are part of what is SCC spirit. The students, faculty, staff are helpful in so many ways—we are creating a very civil society, and I am proud to be a part of that.
Anything else you would like us to know!
Check back with me at the end of the Spring Semester, 2027...I will be graduating with an AA in Art!