- By Allyson Aleksey | Examiner staff writer |
- Jul 25, 2023 Updated 1 hr ago (SFExaminer.com)
Teachers at City College of San Francisco are concerned that waitlists for the fall semester could climb as high as 6,000 students if the school does not hire back faculty it laid off last spring.
In June, the college Board of Trustees passed a resolution to rehire 38 tenured faculty members it let go in May 2022 due to budget constraints. The layoffs led the school to cap enrollment and prevented the college from opening new classes to meet the growing list of applicants.
“Students want to take CCSF classes, but the administration’s commitment to continuing a bad policy is making it impossible,” said Clare Heimer, a math teacher who has been watching the growing waitlists with increasing alarm.
“There are already over 800 students on waitlists in departments with laid-off faculty waiting to be rehired, including English, construction, and business,” she said.
The slow pace of rehiring is causing a growing pool of applicants to be turned away this fall, according to AFT 2121, the CCSF faculty union. In a statement, the union said more than 1,600 students are already on waitlists for fall classes with no seats available, and it expects that number to rise to more than 6,000 by the end of August.
Board member Susan Solomon, the author of the resolution, acknowledged that not all those laid off would be able to return to work immediately but that all would be invited to return before spring 2025.
According to the union, Chancellor David Martin refuses to implement the board’s June resolution to rehire staff, causing the school to turn away hopeful students due to capacity.
Chancellor Martin did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Board of Trustees President Alan Wong said the resolution is open to interpretation, leading to confusion. He called a special meeting this Thursday to clarify the board’s intentions.
“I understand that there’s some ambiguity in the resolution that was passed, and there are different perspectives and interpretations on the pace that we bring back to our faculty,” he told The Examiner.
Wong confirmed that City College had offered a biology and chemistry professor and a librarian their positions back. As of next week, there will be 27 faculty members on the recall list.
Community college has always been an effective path to higher education, especially for cost-burdened students. It’s also a way for high-school students to gain credits early to fast-track them to selective University of California schools.
As a former City College student, Wong said taking courses there saved him money as a young student preparing to attend a UC.
“Community college is a bigger option for students now with rising student debt and rising tuition all across the country,” he said.
California responded to this growing need and interest by allowing community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees, so students would no longer have to transfer out to continue their education.
“I would like to see the college offer any student that wants to attend City College a seat in our classes,” Wong said. “And I would like to ensure that the college has the flexibility to do that as much as possible while maximizing our enrollment as much as we can.”
