City College English Teacher Urges Action for the Sake of Our Students

Dear City College Community,

My name is Lizzie Brock, and I have been a member of the CCSF English faculty since 2007.

I mostly teach 1A and 1A+S, “College Reading and Composition,” foundational courses for Bay Area students hoping to transfer to four-year universities or earn associate degrees for careers in Nursing, Firefighting, Radiology, and so much more.

I have been coordinating students and my colleagues to speak at the CCSF Board of Trustees meeting on May 30 because this past year the college turned away hundreds of students from English 1A (including 205 students who sat on waitlists this spring) and made so many others battle to get into a class, sometimes having to start late.

Meanwhile, six of my tenured, laid off colleagues have been missing from CCSF, along with over twenty of my part-time colleagues.

Last fall, the college allowed the English Department to temporarily hire two of our six laid off faculty when our waitlists showed 300 students needing 1A, and their classes filled, but this spring, with lists nearly as long (typical for a fall-spring ratio), the administration did not permit us to open any new 1A classes or hire any faculty.

There’s a mismatch here: professional, dynamic, early- and mid-career instructors in whose growth the college has invested so much are NOT TEACHING SF students while hundreds of students can’t get a class, a class that is crucial to take early in order to build the academic reading, writing, research, and critical thinking skills necessary for success in college, career and so many parts of life.

That is why I’m calling on our Board of Trustees to work with CCSF’s new Chancellor this summer to schedule enough English 1A and 1AS classes for all the students filling waitlists and whom we expect to enroll by the time the fall term starts–and offer permanent tenured positions back to the laid off faculty who are ready and willing to teach them.

For the good of our students and City College’s own long-term finances, it is imperative that we enable San Francisco’s students to forge their educational journey in their city with the tools they need to succeed–instead of turning away eager scholars! We can and must do better.

Over the next two years, I’ll be continuing to work on AFT’s Enrollment Campaign–that means collaborating with faculty, community, and students to enhance City College’s operations so that we increase our enrollment and in doing so better serve our city.