On their first day of school this week at embattled City College of San Francisco, three Chinese-speaking students practiced an unfamiliar English phrase as they crossed the quad: "Save - City - College."
They picked it up at a raucous noon rally where T-shirts, banners and speakers made it clear that saving the school from closure by the regional accrediting commission will be the main extracurricular activity on campus this year.
"We've got to reverse this madness!" cried Ethan Davidson, a graduate who took the mike to tell the crowd of students he'd earned an associate degree for free years earlier, and then got certificates in HIV testing and counseling for a fraction of the $46-a-unit charged today.
But what "saving City College" will look like is the heavy question hanging over California's largest public school, with its 85,000 students, nine campuses and 100 to 200 "instructional sites" around the city.
Will it mean closing campuses? Turning away more students? Reducing health care for faculty?
"People are scared," said Tim Killikelly, a political science instructor. "They don't want to lose their institution." And if City College remains accredited and is saved, he said, "the other fear is the unknown."
Accreditation problem
City College could lose its accreditation in June because, unlike most colleges, it has failed to operate in a fiscally sound manner as the state cut funding, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges concluded in July. Since 2008, the state has cut $802 million from community colleges. City College's share of that has been $26 million, a 13 percent reduction.
The commission identified 14 major failures, including weak leadership and overspending. While praising the faculty's dedication to students, the commission said instructors lacked a process for setting clear expectations for what students should learn or for measuring whether classes are effective.
The college has until Oct. 15 to produce a repair plan, with help from the state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. Interim Chancellor Pamila Fisher has appointed faculty, staff and students to an Accreditation Response Team. And everyone is counting on voters to approve a parcel tax in November to bolster college funds by almost $16 million a year.
City College has until March 15 to fix everything. Simultaneously, it must create a closure plan. The commission will issue its verdict in June, and the college will close if accreditation is yanked.
Leadership loss
The uncertainty has made it impossible to hire a replacement for Chancellor Don Griffin, who retired in April to be treated for a brain tumor. Board President John Rizzo announced Thursday that the trustees have suspended the search and will instead seek a long-term interim leader. Fisher, widely admired since her arrival in May, leaves in October.
Feeding the fear over City College's future is that about 50,000 students - mainly low-income students of color - rely on the school to help develop careers, for higher education or simply to learn English.
An additional 36,000 take free, noncredit classes, a 32 percent plunge from a decade ago when the state more easily subsidized them. Those short-term classes include everything from computer basics and construction to parenting and self-defense.
City College also offers high school equivalency programs. And at least 5,300 students are older adults taking free enrichment classes - music appreciation, memoir writing and more - that many say prevent isolation and age-related depression.
Yet the school's wide welcome mat is about to narrow. Under the gimlet eye of the accrediting commission, City College is rewriting its mission statement, used by colleges to guide decisions.
The new draft, to be voted on Thursday by the trustees, drops "lifelong learning, life skills and cultural enrichment" from the college's primary purpose. And high-school-level classes, taken by fewer than 2,700 students, are a wobbler.
No one wants to cut. "But it's like baseball," said Karen Saginor, president of the Academic Senate. "If you argue with the umpire, you get thrown out of the game."
Although the game plan is still incomplete, elements such as the mission statement are taking shape. The board balanced its budget by cutting 700 classes and reducing salaries. Faculty members are clarifying their academic expectations and assessing teaching methods.
"People are taking it very seriously," Killikelly said.
Part-time faculty's benefits
Yet some changes should be off-limits - such as reducing health benefits for part-time faculty, said Alisa Messer, who serves on the Accreditation Response Team and is president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121.
"We're very concerned that this crisis will be used to roll back decades of gains for part-time faculty in ways that will damage the college," Messer said, referring to a City College perk often held up as an example of excess: Part-timers who work at least half time for 18 months receive largely the same benefits as full-time faculty. But Messer said it creates loyalty and stability at levels unseen elsewhere.
"We've been a model in California," she said. "The consistency benefits our students, and it's all-around better for the college."
Another way out?
Meanwhile, students at Wednesday's rally held signs saying, "No to Austerity!" and "Affordability and access are non-negotiable!"
Some said there had to be a way out besides cutting or closing. Others questioned the accrediting commission's objectivity, citing donations it has received from the Lumina Foundation, an education organization that has endorsed online instruction and other efficiencies reviled by education purists.
But everyone is hoping for the best.
"I'm realistic, but we cannot devolve into a rinky-dink junior college," said Carmen Melendez, wearing a "Save City College" shirt. A former elementary school teacher, Melendez is studying art in hopes of opening an art center for low-income children. She fears her program could be the first to go.
"I'm a living example of how City College has allowed me to change my life," she said. "I don't want that to go away."
Source: http://feeds.sfgate.com/click.phdo?i=52f04e39339b3dc18fcb12d402fa5bab
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