2009-2010 Budget Information

As you know, the college is facing significant funding reductions from the state and other sources. Faculty and others have been contacting me about how the college is dealing with the cuts. This message is an attempt to provide some information, but, because the budget situation is complex and continues to evolve, it does not represent every detail or the possibility that additional reductions will be necessary if the state announces mid-year cuts.

On October 22, our Board of Trustees approved a final budget for 2009-2010 that reflects the work of the administration, along with the college Planning and Budgeting Council. The plan includes:

• Total class sections for Fall and Spring semesters combined will be reduced 672 sections (272 sections in Fall and 400 in Spring);
• All regular classes for the 2010 summer session will be cancelled except for those classes required by externally mandated accreditation standards (as I understand it, this means only a few, mostly career and technical programs would have classes during summer 2010);
• Counseling hours, library hours, and other student support services have been reduced;
• Salaries are frozen for all district employees;
• Funding is available to hire 1 new full-time faculty, 9 replacements, and 8 consolidation hires. An additional 26 full-time faculty hires will be deferred until 2010;
• Faculty overload and classified overtime have been significantly reduced;
• Vacant administrative and other positions are being left open, with the duties being assumed by remaining employees.

The reductions affect everyone at the college—students, faculty, classified staff, and administrators. Fewer courses, fewer student support hours, fewer employees, and still the college is serving more students in Fall 2009 than we did in Fall 2008. We are all stretched thin and relief is still a ways off since projections for next year suggest our budget will be the same as this year or worse. It is important to remember that the college has weathered these storms before and we will this time, too. By working together and focusing on our mission to serve our students, we will continue to provide the valuable opportunities and resources to our community that we have for almost the last 75 years.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with your questions or comments.

Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Report — October 2009

Click here to download the report.

Board of Trustees Meeting “Highlights” – 10/22/09

The Board heard a presentation by AFT 2121 concerning the budget and the need to protect employee jobs and wages. Dennis Smith, from the California Federation of Teachers, provided state-wide perspective on the issues and the need to make changes at the state. Local perspective was given by CCSF faculty Gus Goldstein (AFT 2121 President), Mike Solow, Carmen Roman-Murray, Francine Podenski, Rosemary Brinson, Nancy Vargas, and Ed Murray. Angela Thomas, from SEIU 1021, spoke in solidarity with AFT 2121. Among the messages: the need to eliminate all unnecessary costs at the college before one teacher loses a job; the importance of counseling and other support services. A large number of other faculty, wearing blue AFT T-shirts, came out to show their support for the presentation.

Students spoke about the release of the Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Report. They spoke to the importance of improving the success rates for all communities of students, for this generation and all the generations to come. They called for follow up on the report to identify and implement programs, services, and other measures for that purpose. They also spoke to the need for summer school as an equity issue.

Peter Goldstein and John Bilmont presented the District’s final budget, highlighting a reduced amount ($2 million) taken from the reserve, compared to the $4 million taken from the reserve in the preliminary budget. They also mentioned that the state designated cuts to student services were very significant, but that the college has worked to share those cuts so that student services did not take an unfair hit. They are monitoring the payroll and other expenditures very closely to make sure that we are staying on budget.
Students spoke to the need for greater student input during the budget process, especially for easier ways to have their voices heard. They spoke, again, to the importance of summer school and that without summer school their admission to other colleges and universities can be delayed for up to a year.
There was an extended discussion of what might be “non-essential” expenditures at the college. Food services, child-care, and summer school were among those ideas discussed, with some arguing that they are essential and some not.

The Board’s Audit committee met during the meeting to discuss the results of external audits, as well as investigations by the District internal auditor.
The Auditor provided a report on the CCSF trademark program. The report recommends that an audit of revenues be conducted to see if the District has received the funds it should have under the program. In addition, it recommends that all revenue from the program should be sent directly to the District Business Office or the District Bursar, rather than any other place in the institution.
The Auditor also reported on the non-profit organization On Focus, which was founded and headed by Dr. Mark Robinson, Vice Chancellor of Student Development. Three other On Focus employees are also District employees. The report recommends that the District investigate the possibility of a partnership interest in On Focus. Further, it is recommended that the District establish policies employees from conducting non-District business during regular business hours.

The resolution concerning trademarking at the college was referred to committee and the Board did not discuss it.

Trustee Jackson introduced future resolutions regarding the development of a new campus in the Southeast community. He also informed us of a newly crafted resolution regarding the admissions to the LVN and/or RN programs.

Trustee Ngo advocated for a Board level work group to begin crafting policies to address achievement gaps at CCSF.

My Comments to the Board — 10/22/09

As you would expect, the college community continues to be occupied, as it should be, with the budget and how we will deal with the funding cuts from the state. In recent weeks, we are experiencing the economic downturn in a new way through the “bumping” of members of our classified staff by city workers who have been laid off by the city. The workers coming to City College are not to blame and we will do all we can to welcome them into a situation that is ideal for no one. At the same time, the loss of experience and institutional knowledge in many key roles will be difficult for the college. The Senate office itself is losing an excellent worker who has helped bring the office to an unprecedented level of organization.

During these times, it may seem strange to focus on how to improve the college, but fewer resources makes it more important than ever to focus on what is most important, on our mission, on our responsibility to our students and to our city; and I spoke to the importance and the difficulty of setting priorities at your last meeting.

One way the Board has helped us set priorities is through the Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Resolution (090430-S7), unanimously approved by the Board April and also approved by the Academic Senate prior to that. The Chancellor has now completed and released a Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Report (October 2009) requested in that resolution. The report states that “the data point to the existence of a racial/ethnic achievement gap at City College of San Francisco.” As a result, “we must accept the existence of an achievement gap and move on to propose solutions, implement them, and measure their success.”

Fortunately, the report continues, “the college already has many programs and services that successfully promote educational achievement for students from ethnic/racial groups that typically succeed at lower rates than college averages.” That is, the college community has a wealth of knowledge and experience that, together with input from the community and others, can help us improve. We won’t succeed by doing things exactly the same as we’ve always done, but by focusing on the problem, as the Board and the Senate have said we should, we will make progress – and the sooner the better from my point of view. I look forward to working with the Board and the rest of the college community to create policies and other measures that address the achievement gaps that have already been found and any may be found in the future.

Before I leave this topic, it should be noted that all communities of students are not adequately represented in the report, because of lack of appropriate data; further study and data collection is needed to identify achievement gaps that may exist for other communities of students. I support the Chancellor in forming workgroups of stakeholders in communities of students for which the college does not have adequate data so that such data can be available for future reports.

I’d like to further acknowledge that the Chancellor prepared the report while dealing with many other issues, most notably one of the worst fiscal situations in the college’s history. He should be commended for his efforts to prioritize the success of CCSF students and for helping the college look at the ways we are succeeding and the ways we are not so that we may address those areas that need improvement.

Another way the Chancellor is working to improve the college, and save money at the same time, is by reorganizing our administration to improve efficiency and reduce the number of administrators. To my knowledge, he has currently had several conversations with the administrators and others, including the Board about the details of the plan. Again, he is to be commended for this work. You won’t hear many faculty complaining about reducing the number of administrators at the college. Unfortunately, although the Chancellor has repeatedly promised to sunshine the details of the plan in the college community, that still hasn’t happened. Since the plan potentially impacts every aspect of college life, the faculty and the rest of the community need to see it. Now that the administrators have had a chance to discuss it, the rest of us need the chance to deliberate and weigh in. It has become especially important because the Academic Senate has been given a proposed administrative job announcement – an Associate Dean of Student Life and Student Learning – that is clearly part of a reorganization plan; we can’t hope to rationally evaluate the job outside of the context of the entire plan. In addition, the students are directly affected by the potential new job and their input will be crucial with regard to the position. The college should not go forward with the job without informed input from the Associated Students and Student Trustee Nielsen. I hope the Board can join me in urging the Chancellor to make the plan public as soon as possible.

Now more than ever, to be an institution that stands for integrity, responsibility, and service we must continue to work transparently together and to focus on what’s important: on our students and on preserving our core missions in the community.

Board of Trustees Facilities, Infrastructure, and Technology Committee Meeting Notes — 10/8/09

New bids on the construction of the Chinatown North Beach campus are coming in lower – good news!

Projects at the John Adams campus should be complete by late this semester.

Technology infrastructure for the Joint Use Facility includes creating enough fiber optic capacity crossing Phelan Avenue (across from the rest of the Ocean Campus) to provide for other projects in the Facilities Master Plan on the west side of Phelan, even though those projects have not yet begun.

The committee discussed the creation of a Bayview Hunters Point Campus and initiating project analysis in the future.

The committee discussed the latest Bond Program Performance Audit Report. The report has 11 finding and 12 recommendations to make the college’s use of bond funds more efficient and effective. The recommendations include more careful policy, control, and organization for project bids. The district got between a C and a D on it’s record keeping and management of the bids.

Chancellor’s Report to the Planning and Budgeting Council — 10/5/09

At yesterday’s Planning and Budget Council (PBC) meeting, the Chancellor together with the VC of Finance and Administration (Peter Goldstein) and the Chief Financial Officer (John Bilmont), gave an update of the budget situation and their plans for helping the college deal with the fiscal crisis now and in the future. Most of these, thought not all, are ongoing solutions and some need negotiation with one or more unions at the college.

First, recall that in May the PBC and the college as a whole created a plan to balance the budget in the current fiscal year (2009-2010) that involved cutting some classes and services, reducing overtime and overload, and many other reductions. Contrary to early reports, which suggested that we were not seeing the savings we should be, the college is on track to realize 60-65% of those solutions.

Second, 60-65% of the savings is not enough. College-wide, we needed to save about $325,000 per month. We haven’t done that so far and in order to catch up we’re all going to have to tighten our belts further. This is especially true in areas of the college that did not cut as much as asked in the fall semester. The Chancellor said he is committed to finding as much of the savings as possible and recognizes that there will be some suffering throughout the college.

Third, going forward the PBC and the Chancellor, with the full support of the unions, have made preserving the core missions of our college and reducing the impact on our District employees a priority. That means that despite all that you may have heard, layoffs for full-time faculty or classified workers are not an option that the unions, the Chancellor, or PBC endorse. As the Chancellor stated in his budget update on Saturday, October 3, we’re also doing all we can to minimize the impact on part-time workers.

Going forward, the following are identified as possible solutions (I’ll indicate, to the best of my knowledge, the current status of these options in parentheses):

1. Program reductions – areas where we providing services that are not part of our core missions (in early stage discussions)
2. Administrative reorganization (will be finalized in the next few months)
3. ITS reorganization (mostly in Chancellor’s and VCFA’s head)
4. Grants – move 25-30 positions to grant funding (in progress)
5. Indirect grant funds – trying to get more than the 5% overhead costs that the District currently obtains from grant funding (in progress)
6. International students – increasing the number of international students we have the college (in early stages)
7. Reassign time/extra pay – permanently or temporarily reducing the amount of reassign time not used for classes and direct services to students (in early stage discussions)
8. Tenure process streamlining – reducing the amount of work involved in the tenure process, especially for long-time part-timers who are hired as full-time (in very early stage discussions)
9. Reorganizing college legal services (in early stage discussions)
10. Parcel tax for CCSF on the November 2010 ballot (in early stage discussions)

My Address to the Board on 9/24/09

Trustees and Chancellor Griffin,

I first want to acknowledge the many faculty that came out tonight to show their support for me and for the Academic Senate more generally. They are not paid to be here; their presence demonstrates their dedication and their passion for the college and for their students.

The Academic Senate is working on several issues: Sustainability, Vision and Mission statements, matriculation plans and all the other regular business we do, but as has been the case for many months now, the real faculty preoccupation is with the budget.

Even though it’s only September, because of the college’s fiscal woes, unfortunately I feel like I’ve already worked a whole school year. The stress level on campus is higher than I’ve seen it and I am getting a little grumpy – which is saying something for me. If I’m getting grumpy, imagine some of my more expressive colleagues.

It’s been said before and it bears repeating that this is a crisis. The students, faculty, classified staff, administrators, and trustees that braved the fog and wind speak out on Ram Plaza today can attest to the fact. The state has put us in a very bad place, threatening our ability to educate our students and to remain a vital part of our community. The danger to students in terms of higher fees and lost classes and services is real. The danger to faculty and other District workers in terms of lost hours, pay, and even jobs is real.

And as resources become more scarce, competition for them becomes more intense. Issues that in better times would hardly register are suddenly large and contested, because, unfortunately, we’re working in a zero-sum game. When we support something—whether we know it or not—we takeaway from something else. And so, while we all want to save classes, programs, and services for students and we all want to protect jobs, when we do that something else doesn’t get saved. In this situation, if you as a Board direct us to spend money on something and don’t tell us where to take that money from, you are doing just what the state is doing—forcing us to make the nearly impossible decision about what must be cut.

Making decisions about how we use our resources is difficult, even agonizing, but we must make decisions and we must take responsibility for them. That means understanding the context and the consequences. As the college struggles to understand and to decide, we need your help and the help of all those who care about the college. Now is not the time to argue about small issues. Now is the time to understand the big picture. You can help the college face this time and help guide us through with our priorities intact. Or you can pick at details and promote infighting and competition. You have the right and the responsibility to ask questions and propose solutions, but the most important thing you can do in this time when we cannot serve everyone is listen to the needs of the college and community, to do as much as you can to understand the context in which we try to serve our city, and to help establish priorities for what can be done and what, very sadly, cannot.

Therefore, I challenge you to lead the college by example, working together and with us to set priorities now and going forward. Such priorities can serve as guides, helping us all make the necessary daily decisions knowing that we’re all working toward the same goals. That is what will keep us together. That is what will keep us doing our best for our community.

Board of Trustees Meetings Notes — 9/24/09

Members of the public spoke against suspending citizenship and language classes at the 30^th Street Senior Center; they talked about the quality of the instruction and the classes’ importance to their lives. Others spoke to the value of computer facilities at Southeast Campus and to the need for them to remain open to serve the community.

The Board voted to amend the agenda, early in the meeting, by removing the language added to resolution B1 after the first publication of the agenda. This was an excellent change that removed language that could have undermined collective bargaining agreements and other college budgetary decisions.

The Board had a somewhat extended discussion of the trademarking of the City College Ram Logo, the words “City College of San Francisco,” and the acronym “CCSF.” Trustees Ngo and Rizzo raised several questions as to the propriety of the trademarking and the way the incoming funds, however small, are being spent. (So far, the program has brought in about $4,000 per year.) I spoke to the Academic Senate’s opposition to trademarking the name and initials of the college and described some of the confusion and unnecessary hassle that has arisen because of the issue. The Chancellor has asked District legal counsel and our internal auditor to investigate the situation and present a report to him. He said at the meeting that, after the report is available, he will probably be recommending starting over with the trademarking issue.

The Trustees had an extended discussion on the Resolution to Create Greater Community Access and Opportunity in City College’s Nursing Program (S8). Chairs from CCSF’s LVN and RN program spoke against the resolution, as did other members of the college community. One member of the community spoke in favor of the resolution. I spoke representing the Academic Senate’s opposition to the resolution and let the Board know that, since this resolution is in the purview of the Academic Senate, if they vote against our recommendation they must provide written notice of the reasons for going against our recommendation. The resolution failed on a tie vote.

The Board approved the District Sunshine Policy, modeled after the California Public Records Act and the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance.

Trustee Grier distributed a list of newspaper articles, in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, US News and World Report, Inside Higher Education, and others, that shed favorable light on CCSF.

Peter Goldstein reported that contrary to preliminary findings, the college is on track to achieve the savings the college identified for this academic year. As  result, the college’s final budget was not ready for passage and the Board voted to table the final budget till October.

There was some dialog at the meeting’s end about mutual respect between the Board and the audience and advocating for appropriate decorum during meetings.

City Currents Column — 9/7/09

As we continue to struggle with one of the worst budgets in the college’s history, District employees are experiencing high levels of anxiety because of the very real threat of reductions in hours and even lay offs. The threat is particularly acute in student services, where the state has told us to focus our cuts. Our current financial strategy includes postponing classes, especially next summer, but student services’ reductions are proportionately much larger. It is not clear to me nor to many other observers that we or our students can allow student services to suffer such losses.

Counselors, librarians, and other student support staff play important roles in students’ lives by providing invaluable help—help identifying educational goals, help finding campus resources, help overcoming the numerous obstacles that prevent students from achieving their goals. Student success depends on counselors, tutoring, and many other factors, along with quality classroom environments.

As we go forward, I believe we must consider questions such as: What level of support outside the classroom do students need to succeed? Which students will suffer most from reducing student services? Is our responsibility to our students and our city met by offering classes, even if we can’t support students outside the classroom? If we are forced to reduce our workforce, how can we best preserve our human resources and prepares for recovery in better times? How do we best serve our students and community with fewer resources?

Such questions are difficult to answer, even in the best of times—but we must make the attempt.

Board of Trustees Facilities, Infrastructure, and Technology Committee and Community Relations Committee Notes — 9/10/09

The committee discussed the possibility of creating a Chief Technology Officer position in the 2009-2010 budget. The Chancellor argued that the position would actually save money by providing better, more efficient IT services. He claimed that the college has a disproportionately high number of IT personnel and that it could be reduced through attrition and restructuring. Trustee Rizzo supported the idea and mentioned the importance of having a CTO for security and leadership reasons.
I made sure the Board understood that any new administrator’s job description needs to be vetted by the Academic Senate and Classified Senate.
The committee voted to recommend the position in the budget to the full Board.

The committee discussed the progress on the new Chinatown/North Beach campus, as well as the work on the John Adams Campus, Joint Use Facility, and the new soccer field at Ocean Campus.

Trustee Grier raised the issue of the poor facility conditions at the current Chinatown/North Beach campus; she would like us to work with SF Unified to improve those conditions and to make sure that we get a decent facility for the District’s rent money. She further asked about provided adequate maintenance and custodial staff for new buildings, like the Joint Use Facility, as they come online.

Trustee Jackson asked about SF State’s potential sharing of the Joint use Facility and funds that CCSF might receive from that sharing. The Chancellor spoke about a college group that was working to designate the use of the facility, beyond the departments that are already getting space in the building. Trustee Jackson further spoke to the need for community—including students, faculty, and classified staff—input for the way we use the Joint Use Facility.

Trustee Rizzo discussed the possibility of changing the fee structure for student parking to maximize revenue and minimizing student costs. How these seemingly contradictory goals would be accomplished simultaneously, I don’t understand. When I raised the issue, Trustee Rizzo said that the idea is more to raise revenue, than to reduce student costs. Trustee Jackson raised the issue of which students would be impacted by parking fee changes.

Trustee Jackson discussed a proposed resolution to create great access for San Francisco residents to the nursing admissions process. I brought up various objections that had been raised by the Academic Senate, including dubious legality, implementation issues, fairness to students in the Bay Area and state, and the process that was used to develop the proposed resolution. The committee agreed to recommend the resolution to be approved when the full Board meets later this month.

Student Trustee Nielsen talked about his idea to develop a Student Ombudsman position to advocate for students.