Help City College win new leadership and new investment
To protect the true community college mission and responsibly manage the money winning Prop O will bring to the college City College needs new leadership.
City College Trustee Candidates Vick Chung, Anita Martinez, & Susan Solomon will put students first, & we need to make sure they are the leaders managing Prop O.
Prop O will provide the stable ongoing local investment that City College needs to combat the State’s under-funding of public education.
Chancellor Martin & the current Board of Trustees are downsizing your college without regard for the impact on students & communities. Stopping them will require each and every one of us working together. Yes, that means you. We only have one month before mail ballots drop so we need all hands on deck to win full funding & new college leadership in November.
Sign up now to campaign for the candidates September 10 & 11 at 11am in the Mission District & join a Prop O campaign mobilization on Saturday September 10 at 11am in the Sunset. Find more info on events & RSVP here: https://bit.ly/ccsfWINS
Donate to trustee candidates:
COPE endorsements report
Following the 8/30 COPE meeting AFT 2121 members voted to:
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YES on Prop M Empty Homes Tax
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YES on Prop E Affordable Housing Measure
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NO on Prop D “Affordable Housing” Measure Initiative
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Endorse the re-election of Manohar Raju for Public Defender
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Endorse the re-election of Shamann Walton for District 10 Supervisor
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Endorse Adolfo Velasquez for the 2-year City College Board of Trustee Seat
These positions join our previous endorsements for November 2022:
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Endorse Vick Chung for Board of Trustees
Chancellor forum reportback
On Friday, Chancellor David Martin held a forum. As you can see from this photo, the Ocean Campus did not seem energized to hear his vision for our school.
He talked about the “difficult decisions” he’s made. He claimed that his mistake in slashing the Real Estate program had been that he hadn’t cut the classes earlier.
Here are a few things he didn’t mention: Students can’t get into English 1A. As of 8/15, right before waiting lists were wiped out, there were 642 waitlisted students for English 1A , that’s one in six students who tried to sign up. And that only counts students who managed to get onto the limited waiting lists. At the same time, ESL has been slashed. Low-level ESL classes are shamefully overcrowded, with an average enrollment of 90 students in remote non-credit sections. Our Motorcycle program is virtually gone. BEMA has been slashed. And the list goes on.
AFT 2121 Grievance Officer Malaika Finkelstein interrupted the beginning of the forum, asking the chancellor to address an urgent situation. Rent was due yesterday, and a faculty member was at risk of eviction because the college had failed to pay him. Malaika asked the chancellor to instruct his administration to pay the faculty member immediately. The chancellor refused, saying only that he would talk about it privately later. Some administrators in the room voiced resentment at the interruption, apparently feeling the chancellor’s prepared speech to be more important than preventing the possible eviction of a colleague.
Later in the forum, it was reported that the person had been paid, but that was not accurate. CCSF finished their pay process about three hours after the forum had ended, and as of this writing Friday afternoon, the money has not yet cleared the bank. The good news is that the landlord has not initiated eviction proceedings, but it easily could have gone differently.
Clearly, the priorities are all wrong. The chancellor could have talked about the new state funding and the exciting possibilities of new local funding, and told us how City College can grow. He could have told us how he plans to bring back classes from Biology to Music to Welding. Failing that, he could have taken responsibility for the emergency that his administration had caused for one of his own employees.
We need new, responsive leadership. At the same time, we need to pressure our existing administration to step up and do the right thing. Change will require each and every one of us taking action.
- AFT 2121 will hold a special in-person membership meeting on 9/13 to discuss how we can resist downsizing. Agenda here.
Special Membership Meeting
Tuesday 9/13, 3-5 pm
Mission Campus, Room 106
- City College Trustee Candidates Vick Chung, Anita Martinez, & Susan Solomon will put students first, and we need to make sure they are the leaders managing the new funding if we win Prop O. Join a campaign mobilizations and lit drop! Many dates many locations and dates available in September and October.
More info and RSVP here: https://bit.ly/ccsfWINS
Health & safety win
EOPS Counselors returned to work in-person to find a building full of mold. It was more than an annoyance – people were reporting headaches, itchy eyes, and respiratory problems. Administration had been informed, but all they had done was to find a new office for one counselor. Even that didn’t help, as there was no computer in the new office and the counselor ended up having to come back to the EOPS bungalow. All the other EOPS employees were still assigned to the bungalow, and students were meeting their counselors in moldy rooms.
All that changed this week. On Wednesday, all the EOPS counselors got together with AFT 2121 President Mary Bravewoman and Grievance Officer Malaika Finkelstein. They filed an OSHA report. They also wrote a letter to administration, saying they would all work remotely until this is resolved. Administration finally took action. They closed the EOPS bungalow as of Thursday morning. Counseling appointments are currently remote, while the dean is trying to arrange new office-space. Facilities has also requested a professional evaluation from an Industrial Hygienist.
If your work-space needs repair or maintenance, please report it. We know the college doesn’t have enough workers to respond to all the requests rights away, but we still need them to know where the problems are. Get your requests into the official pipeline by using the Schooldude form. You can also find this form at the bottom right of the CCSF Buildings & Grounds page. Also, let your precinct rep know. If we need to take collective action, your rep is the best person to get that started.
And remember, all workers have the right to file with OSHA if there is a real health and safety problem. You can file here, or by contacting the San Francisco office at 415-557-0100 or doshsf@dir.ca.gov. If you take the step of filing, please let your precinct rep know, or tell Malaika: mfinkels@aft2121.org
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