A CCSF student spoke to his perceived lack of due process around a complaint with in the college.
Another student, and the mother of two children who also have attended the college, spoke to the great experience that she and her children have had at CCSF. Her son has been accepted to a NASA internship over the summer.
During Peter Goldstein’s report on the District finances, he emphasized that the upcoming budget year will be at least as challenging as the current one is, perhaps worse because many of the solutions the college found to address the deficits this year were one-time fixes. The Chancellor added that the state is very unlikely to increase our revenues over the next two years. The Chancellor characterized the situation as a crisis. Despite this situation, we must increase the number of classes we offer in the next academic year, because we are under base enrollment this year. Maintaining our current funding levels from the state will mean adding classes next year that we cut this year.
During the report from the community hiring monitors, the Board heard that one of the contractors working on CCSF bond projects are not hiring San Francisco residents. Another is not hiring women. There are also several obstacles to hiring more local workers at the Chinatown/North Beach campus construction project.
The Chancellor presented a report on student equity and the achievement gap at CCSF. He affirmed that there is an achievement gap at the college and he asserted that the two most important issues at the college currently are: fiscal stability and the student achievement gap.
Most of the items in the plan have broad support at the college. The plan also includes timelines to address the English, math, and ESL sequences that will begin to be implemented by January 2011. You can download the entire plan at: http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/ccsf/en/about-city-college/shared-governance/academic-senate.html
As part of plan, the Chancellor will be forming a task force to address these issues as a top priority. The Chancellor said he would be forming this task force in the next week.
A former City College student, incarcerated during World War II because she is of Japanese descent, spoke about being awarded an honorary degree at last May’s CCSF graduation. The audience at the meeting gave her a standing ovation. The Board voted to confer honorary degrees on all former City College students who were unjustly interned during that time.
Students spoke about disenfranchisement during the recent election for Student Trustee. A decision was made to run the Student Trustee election online only, causing significant voting difficulties for many students.
Student leaders from Southeast and Evans campuses asked for more classes and services at those campuses, including counseling and other student support.
The Board voted to spend about $33,000 to poll the City of San Francisco to determine if the city’s voters would support a parcel tax to support City College’s general fund, helping the college through this very difficult fiscal environment.
The Board made the following administrative appointments:
- David Yee as Interim Dean, School of Science and Mathematics
- Fred Chavaria as Interim Dean, School of Behavioral and Social Science
- Minh Hoa Ta as Interim Dean, Faculty Support Services, Course/Room Scheduling
- Rose Marie Roberson as Interim Dean, International Education and Retention Programs
- Phyllis McGuire as Associate Vice Chancellor of Workforce & Economic Development & Grants, now reporting to the Vice Chancellor of Policy and Research (a currently vacant position).
- Terrance Hall as Dean of John Adams Campus and the School of health and Physical Education.
- Bob Davis as the Interim Dean, School of Liberal Arts & Castro/Valencia Campus (there was great deal of discussion concerning this appointment)
Several people mentioned the loss of Debbie Porter, a long-time stalwart in the college’s classified staff. The Board closed the meeting in her honor.
