Last Friday we took a huge step forward in our fight against the class cuts and toward upholding our College’s core mission: providing access to quality higher education for all. We packed City Hall chambers for the first meeting of the Joint City, School District, and City College Select Committee. The hearing was convened by Supervisor Matt Haney to air facts. Our presence, our presentations, and our public comments sent a strong message: “NO! We will not tolerate a one third downsized college!”
The Supervisors listened to Chancellor Mark Rocha speak for over an hour and tell them that the college’s $32 million budget deficit is real. He told them that City College will slash 10% (242) of the classes in a range of subjects next fall while expecting to grow enrollment by 12%.
The Supervisors listened to Marcos Cruz from the CCSF Student Assembly, who pointed out that cutting sections really is downsizing, because you can’t just assume students will redistribute to fill the available times. He emphasized that the focus on “productivity” results in fewer teachers per student, and larger classes, both of which work against the stated goal of increasing equity. Research by the Student Assembly found 141 sections on the list to be cut that enrolled at least 15 students in Fall of 2018. That means 3,291 students were in sections last year that have been removed from the Fall 2019 schedule and more than 2,500 students were in classes with only one section that were completely removed without replacement. Some cuts, like those in American Sign Language and Filipino studies, would decimate programs.
The Supervisors listened to Beatriz Herrera from the Grow Our College Coalition who presented preliminary results from the coalition’s survey that showed the adverse effects of class cuts on the San Francisco community.
The Supervisors listened to Alayna Fredricks, AFT 2121 Executive Director, who set the CCSF funding problems in the context of chronic underfunding of public education, the displacement of families from SF, and the fallout from the accreditation crisis. She noted that AFT and the students were fighting to keep healthy classes with 20, 25, 30 students enrolled, and that cutting these classes shrinks access and threatens funding. As a result, she said, it may be time for San Francisco, one of the wealthiest cities in the nation, to consider an investment through the creation of a “Community Higher Education Fund (CHEF)” to support the classes that our community needs and deserves.
The Supervisors listened to Angela Thomas from SEIU 1021, who talked about working on the parcel tax and hearing people say, “I love City College, I want City College to stay around,” and about “the wide scope of who we serve.”
The Supervisors listened to dozens of people who offered public comment, including a neighbor of Ocean Campus who said, “Education is growth, education is exploration. It’s not a Guided Pathway where you get people by the nose and tell them what they can take.”
In the end, Supervisor Haney said the city should look for more ways to help City College. “City College has saved people’s lives,” he said. “We need to expand it. Not downsize.”
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