( Illustration by CCSF student Jon E. Greene)
Just like last year, CCSF Chancellor David Martin will be asking CCSF trustees to downsize our college and close classroom doors to tens of thousands of students. Chancellor Martin plans to issue 50 layoff notices for full-time faculty, and all part-time faculty in targeted departments would be denied assignments as well. This could not come at a worse time. The college has already lost 30% of its classes in the last two years and can no longer meet the enrollment demand in San Francisco. The Chancellor’s plan will close hundreds of fully enrolled classes and leave CCSF faculty members without work. But unlike last year, the college is not in financial desperation. We have shown that our budget DOES NOT mandate layoffs.
When we asked the Chancellor why he intends to issue these layoffs, his answers were both revealing and disturbing. The reasons that he gave had only to do with pleasing fiscal managers and administrative agencies that have little to no concern for meeting the public education needs of our community. At no time did he express any concern about the impacts of layoffs on students, faculty, and classified staff or what these cuts would mean for the future of the college and our mission to educate our community. Make no mistake about it, the policies that are foremost in his mind will devastate our students, our faculty, our staff, and our CCSF community.
David Martin will ask the CCSF trustees to vote on this layoff plan by the end of this month. But the people of San Francisco have elected the trustees to defend public education. We need to hold our Trustees and Chancellor accountable. Here are two ways to take action right now:
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Share the pressure campaign on Facebook and Twitter. If trustees don’t live up to their responsibilities, the voters will know what to do this November when four seats come up for election.
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AFT 2121 & SEIU 1021 members stand together for our students and our college in the latest #HeartbeatofCCSF. Watch, Like, & Share on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook. Text by the one and only Tehmina Khan, & video production by CCSF students and the AFT 2121 Communications Team.
Even if the board initially goes along with this downsizing plan, there’s still time to stop them from finalizing it before the May 15 deadline. Because the CCSF community worked together to fight back the last time CCSF faced a threat like this, we are in a better position than last year to push back. We all need to step up to save City College, a majority student of color bedrock of San Francisco. The key to our success will be solidarity among faculty, staff, students, community, and labor allies. Join us by standing together against class cuts and layoffs!
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