Hearing: How the Cancellations of 300 Classes Impacted Low-income and Communities of Color

Yesterday was my first time in the chambers with both the Board of Education and the CCSF Board of Trustees.to discuss how the cancellation of about 300 classes for the spring semester impacted low-income and communities of color as well as high school students.

A couple of members of the Board of Supervisors were there too, mostly to greet us. Supervisor Walton was one of them. Was the other one Preston, seated here beside Alex Randolph, who was President of the Board of Trustees for several years?

Before the "hearing," there was a spirited rally and press conference in front of City Hall, and a large group of school children stopped by with their teacher to cheer us on. Preston spoke at the press conference.

The administration was represented by CCSF Acting Vice Chancellor of Facilities Torrance Bynum, which really wasn't fair to him. The only one who had any data was Alex Randolph.

Jenny Worley spoke persuasively, making the point that "student success" should be measured in ways other than just their AA degrees and transfer to a four-year-college.

The speeches in support of the reinstatement of the cut courses were powerful. Beth Ericson presented a letter from a student who had the flu and couldn't come. Since we can't applaud in the chambers, we wave our hands to show approval and support. We waved our hands for Beth and others.

Red for Ed

Red for Ed!  Today, Tuesday, January 28, 2020,  we had a rally for Schools and Communities First, the legislation that, if passed, would close the corporate loophole on Proposition 13 and restore $12 billion to our schools and communities.

Here I'm posing beside Marcos Cruz, a student who works with our AFT 2121 Teachers Union and answered my message asking for a student speaker for OWL's program on City College.  

I also posed beside a woman in red who had the red hat I was missing so I could benefit from that, and she could benefit from the red boots that she was missing

Later we went to the office of Aisha Safai to thank him for voting yes on the Bridge Funding Initiative.

What We Need to Know and Do for City College of San Francisco

Today, January 28, 2020, there will be a rally at City Hall  at 12:30 followed by lobbying of supervisors before the take a vote on the bridge funding ordinance between 2:00 and 4:00 PM. 

I want it known that when I contacted all of the trustees about being part of a February 22nd panel on CCSF for OWL, the Older but Wiser Women's League, only two bothered to respond at all.

I want it known that those two were Ivy Lee and John Rizzo.  Both declined because they said they had other commitments on February 22nd, but Ivy Lee made an effort to put me in charge with someone from Administrations (Leslie Milloy, who made an effort but found out no one from Administration was available), and John really addressed some of my questions that we hope to address on February 22nd. 

Here's my letter to John Rizzo this morning:

Hi, John!

I think everyone is interested in permanent funding, such as CHEF, but there's a feeling of urgency, and Leslie Simon made an analogy with "The Gift of the Magi," that once the gift comes, it will be useless because City College as we want it to be will no longer exist.

I heard both Mandelman and Walton talk at a recent (January 15)  supervisors' hearing on this, and they each had a different take on what the Board of Trustee members wanted or were willing to support.  Mandelman had talked to trustees who, like the chancellor, didn't want bridge funding, and Walton had talked to trustees who did.  (It was after that meeting that I asked Mandelman to be on our OWL CCSF  panel and he accepted.)  

I know that Leslie Simon has written to you as well as to Shanell and Brigitte in hopes that you could  reach out to Peskin. Shanell said she did and hopes he jumps on board. . 

I want to say that, while I support the bridge funding initiative and hope you do too, we OWL board members really do want diverse points of view on the panel.   Personally, I think we listen too little to people whose opinions don't match ours.  I'd really like to know how the Administration justifies making the cuts without even  advising the department heads in advance.  I'd really like to know the answers to these questions:

Who makes the decisions about how city college is run and what courses are offered?  For example, if San Francisco wants it to be a community college, and Sacramento wants it to be a junior college, who makes the final decision?

 

 Many cuts and changes appear to be “top down” decisions.  What efforts are underway to create a more inclusive decision making process?  (Whatever happened to shared governess?)

How is City College financed?  What percent of the money comes from the state?  The city?  The county?

Why did City College cut almost 300 classes for the current semester, and why was this done without consulting the department heads and others?

Why did the chancellor say it wasn't an emergency situation and refuse the money that Supervisor Walton and some other supervisors were trying to make available to restore the classes that were cut?

Why is City College always in the red?

Is City College vulnerable to real estate speculation?  For example, what property does CCSF own?  Is it tempted to sell any of this property? 

What's the background and what's the latest on the Performing Arts and Education Center at City College?  How is this affected by the Balboa Reservoir?

 Please understand that I'm not expecting you to answer these questions at the moment.  Will you be at the rally, lobbying, and hearing this afternoon?

Thanks again for being responsive.  I've let others know.

Tina

In Praise of Marcos Cruz

Even though not one of the trustees from the Board of Trustees at CCSF has responded to my plea sent mid-day this past Monday, I have gotten a response from Marcos Cruz, whose name and email address I got from Leslie Simon, who told me he heads up the Student Asembly and is a paid intern at the Union.

.  I sent him a message on Tuesday evening and got a response within two hours.  What a contrast!

He said he would love to be on the panel but will be out of town from February 20th through 25th.  He offered to help us find another student speaker and asked to be kept in the loop.

For the record, here's the message I sent to him.

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 5:34 PM Tina Martin <tina_martin@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Dear Marcos, 

I got your name from Leslie Simon, who told me that you head up the Student Assembly and are the paid intern at the union.

I would  like  to invite you to be part of a panel for an OWL program about City College on Saturday, February 22, from 10:00 to noon.

OWL stands for Older Women's League, but if you have a stereotype of old women, I don't think we fit it.  Our president has gotten city-wide recognition for the  work she did for forty years in the Tenderloin, and another board member just got written up in a feature story in Forbes Magazine because of the film festival she founded and runs.  When I first met these women at the SF Public Library, I was really impressed by them as I have been by their (now our) programs.  I'm telling you this in hopes of making your want to speak to our group.

We also foster inter-generational connections.

We want to have a program on City College because so many of us are impacted by what happens there.  

Could you make up part of our panel?  Jenny  Worley, the president of AFT 2121, will  be on the panel, and so will Rafael Mandelman, who was a CCSF trustee for six years  and has been a SF supervisor for a couple of years.  We've heard that no one from the administration is available that day, which is too bad because we really wanted to hear from people with divergent points of view.

With thanks and hope of hearing from you soon,

Tina Martin, retired CCSF Instructor & member of OWL's Board 

Why No Response from the CCSF Administration?

Here's a plea I sent to the Board of Trustees at CCSF on Monday at noon--right after the MLK Jr. Day march.  Not one person has responded so far.

• Dear Board of Trustees,

 

Both Ivy Lee and Leslie Milloy made an effort to help OWL, Older Women's League, to find a speaker to represent the administration on a panel our organization is having on Saturday, February 22, from 10:00 am to noon to help us understand better how City College is funded, how decisions are made, and why trustees supported the recent class cuts.  We got word that no one from the administration was available.

Today, like hundreds of San Franciscans, I read the editorial in the SF Chronicle reluctantly supporting Proposition A, and of course we know City College desperately needs improvement of its facilities.  When I interviewed Dr. Philip Day for a newsletter when he had just arrived in 1998, I asked him what, if anything, alarmed him about City College when he first saw the Ocean Campus, and he said, "The facilities.  I'd never seen a first-grade institution with such poor facilities."  On the occasions when I had a group of teachers from Korea and China, they commented, as politely as they could, on how much better their facilities were than ours.  

So, at the risk of appearing relentless, I'm going to make one more appeal for someone from the administration to appear on our panel, which will give you a chance to state your case.  At this point, we have a commitment from Jenny Worley, President of AFT 2121, and of Rafael Mandelman, who was a trustee for 6 years and is now a San Francisco Supervisor.

We would like to have a trustee and a CCSF student, and I have sent a couple of messages to Bryan Daley, but so far I've gotten no response. 

I remember when Shanell Williams was a student trustee.  I went to a fund-raiser for her.  I've done that, in fact, for others of you. I've worked beside Thea Selby on outreach for CCSF at Sunday Streets and marched with John Rizzo.

I really think it would help your cause if you found someone to represent the administration on our panel.  

In hopes of getting an affirmative response, for which we'd be very grateful,

Tina Martin, OWL board member and instructor at CCSF from 1982-2014

Why the Midnight Massacre at City College?

To:

Gordon.Mar@sfgov.org,Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org,Vallie.Brown@sfgov.org,Matt.Haney@sfgov.org,Sandra.Fewer@sfgov.org

Cc:Kelvin Young,eff

Nov 26 at 7:54 AM

Dear Supervisors,

CCSF needs your help--again.  As you no doubt know by now, the chancellor cancelled 280 classes before enrollment even began for the spring semester in order to save 2.5 million dollars.  He said that these were historically under-enrolled classes.  

You may know that the Union contract stipulates that noncredit classes from the spring schedule, supposedly because of a looming budget crisis.  This “midnight massacre” includes the cancellation of 90% of the classes in our outstanding Older Adults program next semester.  Unless emergency funding is provided, this will be a disaster for the thousands of older San Franciscans who depend on these classes.

It’s crucial for you to understand that this is not just one more CCSF budget crisis.  It is in fact part of a nefarious, neoliberal agenda to limit the mission of our community colleges. The California Community College System is one of the glories of our state, serving all adults regardless of educational background.  Lifelong learning is a central part of the mission of this system.  However, the State Chancellor is pushing to turn our Community Colleges back to their Junior College status of 50 years ago. The state legislature is also supporting this regressive policy with its new state-funding formula for the community colleges: a three-tier system allotting the most money per student for students in a degree program,  less money for students in a credential program, and far less money for students taking classes “only” to get needed skills.  Twenty years ago, I was one of these “only” students: at John Adams Campus I got the computer skills that I now use in preparing materials for my ESL classes at that same campus. This is just one of countless examples of how valuable classes for our “only” students can be.

The Older Adults program serves thousands of San Francisco citizens in every district in the city.  In recent years this program has grown because it is so popular.  As a very active CCSF outreach volunteer since 2013, I have gotten lots of feedback about our OLAD program, all of it totally positive.  Highly educated persons have told me that this program includes some of their best teachers ever, anywhere. However, as this program is entirely non-credit, it is an obvious target for the State Chancellor’s unconscionable plan to eliminate a central part of the mission of our community colleges.

With his permission, I am pasting below the letter written yesterday by Kelvin Ming Young, Chair of the Older Adults Department, to the CCSF Board of Trustees.  He explains this whole situation and its significance for our city clearly and eloquently.

We appeal to you for emergency funding to save these classes.  We also appeal to you to use whatever influence you have with our CCSF Board of Trustees to get them to keep the community in our community college.  Our chancellor clearly supports the state’s narrow-minded, heartless, inequitable, regressive policy, and so far our trustees have followed him completely, to the anger and frustration of CCSF students and faculty.

For decades, the elders of San Francisco have paid the taxes that fund CCSF. They need and deserve these classes.  Thank you for whatever help you can give us in this dire situation.

Yours truly,

Daniel T. Halford, ESL instructor, CCSF

From: Kelvin Ming Young

To: CCSF Board of Trustees

November 25, 2019

Dear Board of Trustees,

With the Spring 2020 Schedule Reduction mandated by the College Administration, a total of 52 classes from the Older Adults Department (OLAD) have been canceled, leaving us with only a meager 6 classes for next semester. One of the class remained on schedule is not even funded by the College, but by SF Supervisor Gordon Mar from the Sunset District. The classes selected for cancellation appear to be random without basis on any logical criteria, as they don't appear to correlate to class productivity, instructor seniority, class location, history or other relevant considerations. The majority of our most popular classes with highest student attendance record are canceled by the Administration.

The Older Adults Department serves thousands of older adult residents in and around San Francisco. Our classes have been held at over 30 locations throughout the City, including Community Centers, Senior Centers, Adult Day Health Centers, Senior Housing, Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing, Rehabilitation Facilities, Hospitals and more. Our Department has been collaborating closely with community partners on a long-term basis, some for over 30 years. These community-partner facilities act as CCSF satellite classes that probes deep into our community. Off-campus Sites rely on us to offer quality education in Lifelong Learning model to serve the senior residents. Due to the special needs of older adult students, we have been bringing our program to the students in their neighborhoods and communities, all without facility rental cost to City College. Our program includes classes from a wide range of disciplines, including Health and Fitness, Arts and Crafts, Music and Theater Appreciation, Writing and Literature, Computer and Technology, and more. Some of our classes have been held continuously for over years or decades. With the abrupt cancellation of nearly all our classes, the administration will create a cascading effect to the programming of all our community partners, as well as denying vital services to the senior residents we serve.

According to City and County of San Francisco Human Services Agency, older adult is the fastest growing age group in the City. Almost a quarter of current population in the City is over age 60, close to 200,000 residents. Projection shows nearly 30% of San Francisco residents will be older adults by 2030. According to City College's own student demographics from 2017, nearly 30% of our students (over 5,300) in the non-credit division are over 60 years old. With the rapid growth of older adults population in the City, there will be even greater needs for Lifelong Learning program such as ours to serve the older residents. However, the College Administration seems to be oblivious to this fact, and continues to treat our program unfairly without serious consideration.

With a 90% reduction to the Older Adults program next semester, I'm gravely concerned for the future of our Department. Our Department consists entirely of part-time faculty, with part-time Chair and a few retired faculty from other departments. Due to the sudden massive class cancellation, many of our instructors will lose their regular income source and health benefits next semester, all without adequate notice for them to seek alternative employment. At this point, I'm seriously afraid the Older Adults Department will be eliminated completely in the coming academic year, leaving dozens of community partners and thousands of senior residents without access to Lifelong Learning education.

This vast cancellation of OLAD program for next semester will have a devastating impact to our students and community. We implore you to consider the serious consequences of this schedule reduction and reinstate our classes for Spring 2020. Thank you very much.

Regards,

Kelvin

Kelvin Ming Young

Chair, Older Adults Department

City College of San Francisco

(510)332-2469

Email: kyoung@ccsf.edu

http://www.ccsf.edu/olad

http://www.facebook.com/ccsf.olad