Attack on City College SF: Difference between revisions

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''by Molly Hankwitz, September 24, 2013''
''by Molly Hankwitz, September 24, 2013''


[[Image:CCSF mission campus.JPG]]
[[File:City_College_protest.jpg]]


'''A beautiful mosaic of the Aztec calendar greets those entering the City College Mission Campus'''
'''Students and faculty members rallied at City College of San Francisco’s Ocean campus on Nov. 15 against the consolidation of diversity studies programs.'''
''Photo: Shane Menez''


''Photo: Molly Hankwitz''
{| style="color: black; background-color: #F5DA81;"
| colspan="2" | '''City College, long known for its diversity, activism, inclusiveness and reputation for quality low cost education fell victim to the widespread state mandated budget cuts of 2008.  With an enrollment of 85,000 and a large well payed staff the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges forced CCSF to make cuts that the community saw as too drastic and unfair to a beloved city institution.  Seen as more of a civil rights issue than an education topic, students, faculty and San Franciscans made their voices heard.  '''
|}
 
 
'''WE, THE PEOPLE'''
 
The times they are a-changing. Assessment of City College of San Francisco's accreditation and threat of closure in July 2014 came as an unwarranted attack on the San Francisco community. The ACCJC marched in and took over. The move is still having repercussions as students, faculty and staff struggle to hold on to their college.
 
CCSF is a diverse, educated, inclusive, intellectual and progressive, nearly socialist, place where anyone can register, take a class; get a low-cost education. How is it possible, then, that CCSF is not meeting standards when it is so widely valued? What would closure do to the exceptional multicultural and educated workforce of SF? How has the College fought back and what is the educational responsibility of the State of California to poor and minority residents?
 
2008 budget cuts affected California's higher educational institutions through reduced enrollment and loss of services. They took a toll upon CCSF. Pressure on the school now to change its ways or close is harsh after the budget cuts.


'''This Attack Goes Against Our History and Any Meaningful Sustainable Solution for San Francisco'''
Approximately 85,000 students are now currently enrolled at CCSF. It is a democratic institution working to deliver quality education and certification. Many of CCSFs best students are from under-served communities; newcomer, transitional, or older adult residents including indigenous, veterans, seniors, poor women, undocumented workers and newly arrived immigrants.


Maneuverings of The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, (ACCJC) around City College's accreditation and threats of closure this July 2014 came as and unwarranted attack on the community. To many here, CCSF exemplifies the best of this part of the world: its inclusive, diverse, intellectual and progressive populations. How is it possible, then, that CCSF had gotten behind on paperwork and standards when the education is widely valued? What could this event do to the exceptional cultural diversity and educated workforce of the city? How has CCSF sprung back? Moreover, what is the responsibility of Californian cities to their lower income and minority residents with respect to higher education?
CCSF is also a robust employer, paying its faculty some of the highest salaries and benefits for public workers anywhere in the nation. State budget cuts affected the CCSF experience despite successful efforts to preserve faculty salaries and many student services. Now, the faculty's pay has been cut. CCSF wore the difficulties of budget cuts and now the ACCJC is being "tough." [[Education ‘Reform’ Meets Gentrification in San Francisco at City College|CCSF is being made to scramble]], on its new budget, to fulfill requirements.


The 2008 State budget cuts affected California's community and state colleges through reduced enrollment and loss of services. The cuts took a toll upon the UC system as well. The pressure on CCSF to change its ways or lose accreditation is yet another set back to our State's higher educational system.  
[[File:CCSF mission campus.JPG]]


This small, notoriously democratic institution, a College of approximately 85,000 currently enrolled students has worked for nearly a century to deliver quality higher education and certification to its students. Many in the student body are under-served, newcomer, transitional, or older adult residents of the city.  
'''Entrance with mosaic at CCSF's new Mission Campus building.'''
''Photo: Molly Hankwitz''


CCSF has also been a robust employer paying its faculty some of the highest salaries and benefits for public workers anywhere in the nation. State budget cuts have already affected CCSF capacity to do its job as an institution, despite the fact that administration managed throughout to preserve faculty salaries and many student services. Yet, despite the difficulties experienced at the hands of the State, CCSF is now being made to scramble to fulfill the requirements set by the private organization, the ACCJC, or risk closure.


'''More Context'''   
'''MORE CONTEXT'''   


The ACCJC's judgments may have first appeared rigorous due to the many news reports. It may also have appeared an assertive official effort to "clean up" a faltering and unworthy urban institution. But, it's easy these days to send morality plays through the news when "quality education" is being debated as hotly as it is. "Crisis" makes for good reading. However, more astute thinking cannot separate one act of large-scale political indifference from another. These are politically divisive times in the US. From the Federal government shutdown by the Tea Party to the plethora of evictions and foreclosures plaguing citizens' housing. One must read the swashbuckling neo-liberal moves to destabilize institutions as having politically divisive and conservative ''similarities.''  
Judgments of CCSF may have appeared fair and rigorous due to the authority of the ACCJC and  mainstream news reporting. It would all appear an assertive official effort to "clean up" a faltering and unworthy urban institution. But, it's easy these days to send morality plays through the news when education is being debated and reformed as hotly as it is in this country presently. "Crisis" makes for dramatic reading. More astute thinking, however, cannot separate one act of large-scale political indifference from another. These are divisive times politically. From the Tea Party forcing government shutdown to evictions and foreclosures plaguing neighbhorhoods. One must read the swashbuckling neo-liberal moves to destabilize cities, land, economies,and communities as having divisive and conservative ''similarities.''  


The attack must be read, because of its scale and history, as one more event in a spate of political attacks on minority and lower-income citizens (and their history) including the recent Supreme Court's decision on the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Trayvon Martin verdict, the Tea Party's blockade if Obamacare, and Republican adherance to "states' rights", as well as the secret, nighttime addition by Republicans of limitations to birth control, a clear attack on womens' reproductive freedom!
For one, the CCSF attack is consistent with other backlash targeting minority and lower-income Americans. The Supreme Court's decision on the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Trayvon Martin verdict, the Tea Party's blockade of Obamacare, corporate and right-wing efforts to push in "states' rights", and the secret, nighttime addition (by Republicans) of limitations to birth control in health care are clear-cut efforts to curtail liberty and equity for all.


Indeed, globally speaking, entire governments of poorer countries have been strangled by destabilization. Economies have fallen and state measures towards "austerity" have been enforced, frequently through violent police "militarization". But, not without resistance. Privatization of public assets, the dogma there is no money without privatization, has proved hideously successful in league with media, in convincing the public sector that it can no longer survive without private control. We see this in arguments for undermining K-12 public education, parks and recreation facilities, and public transportation.  
Poor countries have been strangled by destabilization. Economies have fallen to enforced "austerity" measures, heavily militarized police action, censorship and violence. Privatization of public assets, the pervasive argument that there is no money without corporate management, has proven extremely successful. In league with media outlets convincing the public that assets must be privately managed and controlled and other economic justifications is relatively simple. We have heard these arguments in K-12 public education, parks and recreation, public transportation and regarding the removal of community-governed farms, libraries and gardens. It started with Bush's "bail out" transaction paid from the tax-payer funded US Treasury and continues with the push towards privatization of higher education.


'''Laying Blame and Taking Action'''


Bodies of “interest” behind frequently clandestine initiatives, like those used to discredit and restructure CCSF, must be resisted. These efforts work to undermine the foundations of our civil society, our capacity for free thought, and the right to self-government of our educated population.
'''LAYING BLAME, TAKING ACTION'''
 
Interests behind frequently clandestine initiatives, like those used to discredit and restructure CCSF, must be profoundly resisted. Their work undermines progress towards a open, democratic civil society; above all our capacity for free thought and the right to self-representation of populations.


In a singularly well-worded lawsuit, City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera's  office has proceeded against the ACCJC for “using the accreditation process to squelch debate with respect to education reform in Sacramento”.(LA Times,2013) Their move sheds light upon the agency's agenda for including CCSF in its already overly-punitive track record of punishing California's community colleges. This commendable insight into the political practices of the ACCJC across the state comes as some welcome relief to an else-wise silent or "on side" City Hall.   
In a singularly well-worded lawsuit, City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera's  office has proceeded against the ACCJC for “using the accreditation process to squelch debate with respect to education reform in Sacramento”.(LA Times,2013) Their move sheds light upon the agency's agenda for including CCSF in its already overly-punitive track record of punishing California's community colleges. This commendable insight into the political practices of the ACCJC across the state comes as some welcome relief to an else-wise silent or "on side" City Hall.   


'''Resistance, Protest, Student Speak Outs: The Community Rallies Back'''


Other efforts to sustain CCSF and to resist the attack such as [http://www.saveourcitycollege.com] has emanated from the CCSF and city community: students, unionists, faculty, and administrators have been working to keep the college doors open despite an imposing “deadline” of July 2014 and declining enrollments. Declining enrollment means continued loss of funding and loss of accreditation will make that situation even worse. The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' has done little but follow along and agree with the “official story”, recently spotlighting the one Trustee who has been given nearly autocratic control of reworking CCSF along ACCJC lines. CCSF administrators, faculty, and students have been held responsible without discussion of the State budget cuts with which CCSF was already dealing and the cuts to courses, departments and services that those cuts brought about.
'''RESISTANCE, PROTESTS, SPEAK OUTS'''
 
Why destroy an institution which is the city's largest provider of workforce education?
Why shutdown the US government so that citizens' don't have affordable healthcare? Herrera's law suit alleges that “the panel is biased against the college and its advocates because of differing agendas.” CCSF's value to faculty and students has long been its openness to political difference and the diversity of the city's culture.
This event may simply be one, sorrowfully, in a long line of continued fall out from greed, corruption, and years of knee-jerk reaction on the part of powerful interests actively working to destroy our civil society.


Efforts to resist the attack in the community are vigorous. (See links below.) CCSF has been working to stay open despite the imposition of the ACCJC and its effects upon enrollment. Declining enrollment means more State funding lost. Loss of accreditation would only make that situation worse. This is how the ACCJC's attack is punitive and counter-productive to a school already beset with budget cuts. CCSF needs money to function at anywhere near its past or present level of good. It is being pushed down by the ACCJC. It has been undermined. One Trustee has been appointed to dictate. Held unduly responsible for the State's budget crisis, and the heavy-handed methods of the ACCJC, CCSF needs its students and its support to survive. 




[[Image:CC is now open sign.JPG]]
[[Image:CC is now open sign.JPG]]


'''Keeping the doors open!'''
'''Thousands are working to keep CCSF open.'''


''Photo: Molly Hankwitz''
''Photo: Molly Hankwitz''


'''Watch Out for Morale Killing Efforts!'''


It is important to name the ways in which threat of CCSF's closure from outside agencies has been felt across the spectrum of the community. In the mainstream press, CCSF has regularly been assailed as fiscally irresponsible, failing to maintain appropriate standards for its students, with the implication that CCSF is notoriously behind the times. Therefore, this is an old and new argument, preparing us for real change, as it were, which will be managed and created to keep us up to date. The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'', reliably left wing, published an editorial, however, on how elements of Obama administration rhetoric is to blame for much of this pushing and maneuvering around education at state and national levels. (Bay Guardian editorial, 2013)
'''MORALE KILLING'''
 
Ways in which the attack on CCSF has played out across the community, fall into camps belonging to the neo-liberalized, capitalist media "speak" which has assailed CCSF over and over as fiscally irresponsible and failing to maintain standards. Implications are that CCSF is behind the times, but this argument is transparent. It is an "old and new" argument, preparing for a future of "real" change designated from above, as it were, which will be more up to date. There is no mitigating circumstance or community voice. Public radio and the ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'',however, reliably left wing, promoted community voice, and published how elements of Obama administration rhetoric are to blame for the maneuvering around state and national education. (Bay Guardian editorial, 2013)  
 
Measures to disrupt CCSF's community have hurt. Faculty received eleven percent pay cuts. This was to be prevented by Prop. A. San Franciscan voters wholeheartedly supported Prop. A. Long term teachers' course loads were reduced. Their classes have been renamed and syllabi handed over to younger colleagues with the excuse that attrition rates were at fault. These contract-breaking tactics hold faculty responsible. It is not the faculty's fault or that of a school under financial pressures from State bungling, that enrollment is in decline. 
 
 
'''CONFUSION AND UNDERMINING'''
 
Threat of closure has felt like robbery, an out and out heist of a public asset by private sector interests, starting with the ACCJC. Ultimately, it's self-representation v. "top down" distanced management with an undisclosed and harmful agenda.
 
When locks were suddenly changed in classroom buildings without notifying Faculty and staff, the message was clear. The CCSF workforce had come and gone freely for years. In one case a native plant garden, carefully tended by a Native American gardener, was ordered removed to be replaced, the gardener was told, with less overtly cultural landscaping.
 
The disappearance of departmental chairs, faculty pay cuts, “downsizing“ of student services, and commercialization of the bookstore all happened so quickly, that there was little time to understand, except to understand. It has been as if CCSF is slated for intellectual demolition. Visions of the campuses falling silent dismay a public familiar with San Francisco land grabs and rapid gentrifying elements. The neo-liberal attack, even if the college stays open. It has already disturbed the coherence of the school.


Surely, most schools across this nation could be improved in some way. But, when is "educational reform" a restructuring for purposes of elitism, profit-making, downsizing, and labor breaking maneuvers, and when is it something which will ''not'' hurt students and faculty? Is CCSF, like a small country, not capable of meeting its own challenges without a colonizing force?
CCSF is not only important to San Francisco but to the Bay Area. Radio talk shows about CCSF's accreditation have callers angry over the effects upon community. One ESL teacher from the East Bay ended a righteous rant about the war on minority students with, ”Oakland has no more adult public higher education.” It was chilling.


Sustainability is the key to meaningful growth and stable economy, not stripping institutions of their worth so as to retool them for the private "use" of outside management. City College should not close because City College has a long history of excellence and service. City College is a foundation of education and culture for the city.


Measures to disrupt CCSF's practices from the faceless regime enforcing new management,  have been extensive. In total Faculty have received eleven percent pay cuts, a measure which Prop A, voted in by citizens of the city, was supposed to prevent. But, where did that money disappear to?
'''CIVIL RIGHTS AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY ARE A NATIONAL ISSUE'''


After teaching for years, reduced course loads, renamed classes with syllabi handed over to someone younger, are offensive contract-breaking tactics which hold faculty responsible for management. For instance, attrition rates have been blamed on teachers, when in truth enrollment has been declining since the ACCJC came on Board and even before that with cuts in State funding.(Baum) Department chairs have been fired and departments consolidated. This string of events has done little more than create internal division and fear, confusion and loss of morale for the community, making it even harder on the College.
National events in Washington, Florida and elsewhere this year have targeted the public sector, particularly, people of color and the poor. The New York Times reports that 1 in 5 children live in poverty in the United States. (NY Times, 10/1/2013) Income discrepencies show people of color significantly poorer and more unemployed overall than similarly aged white people; approximately 50% of people of color, both African American and Latino, to a mere nine percent of whites. These numbers lend backdrop to the climate of deprivation surrounding dis-accreditation and the threat to CCSF. The school has helped thousands of poorer and minority students, those most likely to use its services, to gain social and political ground through higher education. Where will these students go and what will their future prospects be in a system oppresses them further? Conservative attacks on affirmative action of the 90s have already shown how short sighted some can be when it comes to addressing equity. Is the tactic this time to bleed important institutions dry financially, then attack them further, and force them to close?


A notoriously democratic institution, CCSF has long served students of minority and low income backgrounds. It has offered sanctuary to the nearly homeless, to recent veterans returning from the nation's wars. It has enabled single moms, young students looking for careers, and older adult populations to flourish intellectually. CCSF buildings house murals by Diego Rivera. As Herrera's suit points out, CCSF is a very different kind of place than the one promised night and day to the wealthy,the customarily privileged of our society, and the conservative.
'''SERIES OF ATTACKS'''


Interim Chancellor, Dr. Thelma Scott Stillman's “welcome” address was boycotted at the start of the school year. Instead of attending, a press conference was held by the City College community.


'''Confusion and Undermining Tactics'''
Starting from the top, is the Supreme Court's decision to take down important parts of the 1965 Voters' Rights Act on the thinly laid argument that the racial discrimination leading to this seminal legislation is no longer operative. To be clear, the Voter's Rights Act is a piece of law protecting minorities from discrimination at the polls.  Just as Roe v. Wade is a piece of law that enables women to lead their own lives with the right of privacy over their own bodies, the Voter Rights Act protects minority voters' rights to participate in elections. Yet within hours of the Court's decision, racially-divided states set about re-zoning voting districts and drawing boundaries which would substantially affect voter turnout in the future. It is an historic fact and feature of his election that President Obama won states where voter turn out for minority and poor populations was especially high. Has fear of the career success of President Obama helped turned the tables on civil rights from voting to higher education?


Threats of closure from the ACCJC have made the community feel that CCSF was literally being robbed from them. Ultimately, its an issue of self-government v. "top down" management. When locks were suddenly changed in classroom buildings without notifying those using them, the message was clear. New keys had to be requested by a workforce which had come and gone freely for years. The sudden firing of departmental chairs, consolidation of disparate departments into one, faculty pay cuts, “downsizing“ of student services, and commercialization of the bookstore all happened so quickly, in retrospect, that nothing but fear was produced. It was as if the College were slated for demolition. Visions of the new campuses falling silent have haunted the public. With San Francisco's history of land grabs and current rapid gentrification it is apparent that the CCSF campuses, with their huge building footprints, lawns, playing fields, and parking lots — and the brand new multi million dollar architecture are gems of assets and real estate. Where is the assessment that would decide to keep CCSF open on the grounds that residents deserve an excellent, affordable educational opportunity? Where lies the democratically held belief that public sector higher education improves the lot of humankind? 
The not-guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting ricocheted across the nation. Fatal wounding of young people of color by those armed and sanctioned to use weapons is being legally protected by the judicial system. This sets a dangerous precedent and constitutes another link in a chain of racist backlash being glossed over in the mainstream media by such ideals as the  “Martinizing” of the Obama presidency with its high profile marches on Washington in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. As Smiley and West have pointed out, sentimentality towards King does little but put frosting on a situation which King himself would have regarded as abhorrent---that is the trading of civil rights laws for ineffectual "feel good" histories as easily forgotten as they are enjoyed. President Obama, while he may be an advocate for affordable health care is no King after all. Martin Luther King was a pacifist, deeply against the Vietnam War, and an activist in that capacity.


The demeaning trend towards closure, and silence of City Hall, needs be redressed for CCSF to move forward. Focus should be placed upon the social history of CCSF as an institution of public good and its influence on our City as an educational institution which we hold in high esteem. Radio talk shows about CCSF's accreditation debacle have had people expressing anger over a perceived anti-immigrant, minority, and low-income student bias. As one angry ESL teacher from the East Bay stated, ”Oakland has no more adult education.” Obviously, the Bay Area, with all its progressive politics is not exempt from colonization.  
What is real, however, is the shape-shifting of top courts and justices, legal maneuveuring legislating inequality, creating new laws around voters' rights, womens' rights, use of lethal weapons, the closing of borders, and the de-waging and under valuation of poor citizens on the basis of race, gender, and income. Where does this growing systemic inequality best take root? Arguably, in attacks on cultures of accessible, affordable education for all. It is here that populations stand to lose the most ground in terms of their access to opportunity, personal growth, prosperity and identity.  




'''Racism and Educational Equity are a National Issue'''
'''THE TOLL'''


There have been too many national events targeting the public sector and particularly its people of color and lower-income populations. 1 in 5 children live in poverty in this country according to a recently published census. (NY Times, 10/1/2013) This lends a cumulatively disturbing background to the events surrounding the dis-accreditation process and threat of closure to CCSF. It appears to be yet another aspect of the specific set-backs being leveled at minorities and low-income people, which in turn have a deeply racist and malevolent cant in their intent.  
Beleagurement of the other is but one pernicious outcome of chauvanistic ruling power. It is observed in the widespread modeling and adoption of “Stop and Frisk” police methods in New York and Oakland, in the problem of Oscar Grant's shooting death going all but excused, and of “inner city” hatred emerging as far back as the Nixon and Reagan administrations when many urban policing laws were put in place and more disenfranchised people started living in the street.  


Starting from the top, the judicial attack on the civil rights movement of the 1960's lead by Martin Luther King and his cohorts is evident in the recent Supreme Court decision to deconstruct the 1965 Voters' Rights Act on the grounds that racial discrimination originally leading to this seminal legislation is simply no longer extant. to be clear, the Voter's Rights Act is but a thin piece of Law, put into place to protect minorities from discrimination, just as Roe v. Wade is a thin piece of law that enabled women to gain the right of privacy over their own bodies.  To be clear, within hours of the Court's decision, notoriously racially segregated Southern states set about re-zoning voting districts, drawing boundaries which would affect voter turnout thus potential outcomes in future elections. It is a well-recorded fact that Obama won in states where voter turn out among minority and low-income populations was high.
If you are a person of color and poor, today — even with a half Black president — you can be screwed out of your vote, stopped and frisked without a warrant, and are as likely in 2013 to be the target of police brutality or "acceptable levels" of violence from someone wearing a badge than you ever have been before.


A not-guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting has also sent a disturbing message. Such an event legitimates discrimination and violence towards young people of color by those armed and sanctioned to use weapons. In my humble opinion, it constitutes another link in a chain of the highly-conservative backlash brewing which is regularly glossed over by the “Martinizing” of the Obama presidency, as Smiley and West have pointed out, which does little but put frosting on a situation that cannot be condoned ---that is the trading of civil rights laws which protect citizens for ineffectual "feel good" histories as easily forgotten as they are enjoyed. Despite my deepst respect for the work of Martin Luther King, the melodrama in his re-glorification via the Obama Presidency is a dehumanization of reality that passes for political freedom in the US. What is real is the continued shape shifting of top courts and Justices, making legal maneuveurs tantamount to oppression of people of color, closing of borders, and the de-waging and under valuation of low income citizens. Where can this be seen? In the cuts to spending of public higher education, in attacks on the cultural ideal of education for all and in the frightening concept of urban populations becoming  worse off than they already are when so many in power have gained huge salaries with no questions asked. The bottome line is that ignorance of humanity leads to the othering and policing of so-called "dangerous" urban populations, usually shown as people of color. The same money could be spent on educating people to move out of poverty and out of cycles of violence. This beleagurement of the other, the poor, the ethnic minority is a pernicious outcome of white, male dominated ruling power. It can be observed in the widespread modeling and adoption of “Stop and Frisk” police methods in Oakland, in the problem of Oscar Grant's nearly excused death, and of “inner city” hatred emerging as far back as the Nixon and Reagan administrations put urban policing laws on the books or more people on the streets. If you are a person of color and poor, today — even with a half Black president — you can be screwed out of your vote, stopped and frisked without a warrant, and are more likely in 2013 to be the target of police brutality or "acceptable levels" of violence from someone wearing a badge, who will be pardoned for shooting you.
Unfortunately, to my mind, the destruction of CCSF due to a financial explanation and showing little faith in its sustained purpose or public good, is a heartless account fitting right into the current, reactionary cycle of governmental shutdown/control and domination. Most importantly, the attack is a disavowal of the importance of political difference, as Herrera's lawsuit amplifies, of multiple cultures and expressions of culture which make San Francisco and the US, great. It is nearly tantamount, instead, to an act of blind, cultural warfare supported through the justifications of power in a manner similar to that described by Hardt and Negri as the growth of "just wars" under empire.  


Thus, to destroy from the inside, an institution which for nearly a century has served well a predominantly minority and lower income student body, unfortunately, to my mind, fits to right in to the current, reactionary cycle of governmental shutdown/control and domination that we are witnessing. It is nearly an act of war against the population supported by justifications in the same way that the invasion, occupation and "rebuilding" of Iraq has been justified. It is a movement of empirical thinking, as Hardt and Negri pointed out, and one in which the modus operandi is clear.


'''DOE'''
'''DOE'''


In 2009, the Department of Education swept the country with educational imperatives in hand. They held multiple public meetings on minority education in public and charter schools in numerous states including our own at the Main Library in Civic Center. In the Bay Area, attendees, including myself, heard from young Oakland activists of color about the state of Oakland's schools, which when moved from being public to Charter status under the DOE's plans for educational reform, frequently became more whitened and were no longer seen as serving or belonging to minority populations. The activists cited in particular the American Indian Middle School, which “went charter” and lost its community character. Actions such as the people's sit-in at Lakeview Elementary in Oakland 2012, underscore further, the degree of struggle being undertaken to protect public schools from outside "takeover". This is in the context, too, of neighborhoods being gentrified and of the extensive publicity of crime rates and levels of involvement from Oakland's black youth. At the same time, it is very important to respond to the fact that if it had not been for the African American press, the Oscar Grant story would probably have disappeared altogether.  
In 2009, the Department of Education swept the country with educational imperatives in hand. They held multiple public meetings on minority education in public and charter schools in numerous states including our own at the Main Library in Civic Center. In the Bay Area, attendees, including myself, heard from young Oakland activists of color about the state of Oakland's schools, which when moved from being public to Charter status under the DOE's plans for educational reform, frequently became more whitened and were no longer seen as serving or belonging to minority populations. The activists cited in particular the American Indian Middle School, which “went charter” and lost its community character. Actions such as the people's sit-in at Lakeview Elementary in Oakland 2012, underscore further, the degree of struggle being undertaken to protect public schools from outside "takeover". This is in the context, too, of neighborhoods being gentrified and of the extensive publicity of crime rates and participation in crime from Oakland's black youth. At the same time, it is very important to respond to the fact that if it had not been for the African American press, the Oscar Grant story would probably have disappeared altogether.  
   
   
In the modern history of the United States, the quality of life, and open, free-wheeling civic participation of community politics have been upheld as standards of indisputable progress embodied by the city of San Francisco. Residents here helped build a movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and have been the first to implement many critical chapters in the history of womens' rights, gay rights, and AIDS research, Moreover, the people of this city have demanded tolerance and sanctuary for undocumented workers and immigrants coming here to be at home. Part of this progressive tradition has been the building of the institution of CCSF which has provided low-cost higher education to the lumpen mass and brought opportunity for betterment to the many without student loan debt.  
 
'''SUSTAINABILITY NOT GENTRIFICATION'''
 
In the modern history of the United States, the quality of life, and open, free-wheeling civic participation of community in city politics have been progressive values embodied by the city of San Francisco. Residents here, after all, helped to build a radical movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, against the invasion of the Gulf in the nineties and Iraq in the 2000s. We have been the first to implement many critical chapters in the history of womens' rights, gay rights, and AIDS research. Occupy SF was a vibrant and challenging chapter in the city's recent political history. Part of this progressive tradition has been the building of CCSF as a deeply engaged institution providing quality low-cost higher education to the lumpen mass without student loan debt.  


[[Image:CC mural.JPG]]
[[Image:CC mural.JPG]]


'''Copernicus and the Aztecs as inspiration.'''
'''Copernicus and the Aztecs as inspiration. Muralist: Emanuel Paniagua'''


''Photo: Molly Hankwitz''
''Photo: Molly Hankwitz''


Regardless of obvious faults which one could find with City College, the point here is to lay bare the methodology of the neo-liberal attack strategies, the connection between depriving populations of public assets and other oppressive events in the national political landscape, and, above all, to point out the right to the city and the right to decent affordable education for all citizens, a feature of San Francisco's support for CCSF and its history as an idea
The point here is to lay bare the consistency of neo-liberal attack strategies, the connection between depriving populations of public assets and other forms of oppression now emerging in the local and national political landscape. Above all, it is to point out the pointlessness of destroying something proven to be an effective resource beneficial to San Francisco residents--an sanctuary for the poor---when with a better set of ideas, it could be prevented. 
 
We must not allow "the wrecking crew" (as SAVE CCSF affectionately refers to its captors) in their effort to control every aspect of our lives, to destroy what freedoms have been dreamed and built for nearly a century by City College


'''Save City College!'''
All citizens deserve the right to higher education! What the responsibility of California's cities is to their populations under seige, regarding this issue in the future, remains to be seen. CCSF should be preserved as the amazing institution it is. It should be saved. It needs our support. It is our College! Our city! 


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''The author wishes to thank Richard Baum for his camaraderie and factual assistance, and Walter Alter for his correspondence and research. She is the initiator of The City College of San Francisco Community History Project (continually being added to Found SF) and seeks to collect stories, photographs, and details about CCSF from the community of San Francisco. She is working on a video installation about City College and urban education for the masses for ATA's window gallery on Valencia Street. ''  
''The author wishes to thank Richard Baum for his camaraderie and factual assistance, and Walter Alter for his correspondence and research. She is the initiator of The City College of San Francisco Community History Project (continually being added to Found SF) and seeks to collect stories, photographs, and details about CCSF from the community of San Francisco. She is working on a video installation about City College and urban education for the masses for ATA's window gallery on Valencia Street. ''  


''For more information, please contact: '[email protected]''
''For more information, please contact: mollyhankwitz [at] gmail [dot] com''


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Notes
Notes
 
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[http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/city-college-of-san-francisco-loses-accreditation-faces-closure/Content?oid=2496026 City Attorney Files Suit]  
[http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/city-college-of-san-francisco-loses-accreditation-faces-closure/Content?oid=2496026 City Attorney Files Suit]  
   
   
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Here's Real History in the Making: [http://mlyon01.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/heres-real-history-in-the-making-fighting-to-save-sf-city-college/ Fighting to Save City College]
Here's Real History in the Making: [http://mlyon01.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/heres-real-history-in-the-making-fighting-to-save-sf-city-college/ Fighting to Save City College]
[[Pan-American Unity | Diego Rivera mural at CCSF]]




[[category:Schools]] [[category:Dissent]] [[category:Immigration]] [[category:2010s]]
[[category:Schools]] [[category:Dissent]] [[category:Immigration]] [[category:2010s]]
[[category:Mission]] [[category:OMI/Ingleside]] [[category:Murals]] [[category:African-American]]
[[category:Mission]] [[category:OMI/Ingleside]] [[category:Murals]] [[category:African-American]]

Latest revision as of 17:08, 29 October 2018

Historical Essay

by Molly Hankwitz, September 24, 2013

City College protest.jpg

Students and faculty members rallied at City College of San Francisco’s Ocean campus on Nov. 15 against the consolidation of diversity studies programs. Photo: Shane Menez

City College, long known for its diversity, activism, inclusiveness and reputation for quality low cost education fell victim to the widespread state mandated budget cuts of 2008. With an enrollment of 85,000 and a large well payed staff the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges forced CCSF to make cuts that the community saw as too drastic and unfair to a beloved city institution. Seen as more of a civil rights issue than an education topic, students, faculty and San Franciscans made their voices heard.


WE, THE PEOPLE

The times they are a-changing. Assessment of City College of San Francisco's accreditation and threat of closure in July 2014 came as an unwarranted attack on the San Francisco community. The ACCJC marched in and took over. The move is still having repercussions as students, faculty and staff struggle to hold on to their college.

CCSF is a diverse, educated, inclusive, intellectual and progressive, nearly socialist, place where anyone can register, take a class; get a low-cost education. How is it possible, then, that CCSF is not meeting standards when it is so widely valued? What would closure do to the exceptional multicultural and educated workforce of SF? How has the College fought back and what is the educational responsibility of the State of California to poor and minority residents?

2008 budget cuts affected California's higher educational institutions through reduced enrollment and loss of services. They took a toll upon CCSF. Pressure on the school now to change its ways or close is harsh after the budget cuts.

Approximately 85,000 students are now currently enrolled at CCSF. It is a democratic institution working to deliver quality education and certification. Many of CCSFs best students are from under-served communities; newcomer, transitional, or older adult residents including indigenous, veterans, seniors, poor women, undocumented workers and newly arrived immigrants.

CCSF is also a robust employer, paying its faculty some of the highest salaries and benefits for public workers anywhere in the nation. State budget cuts affected the CCSF experience despite successful efforts to preserve faculty salaries and many student services. Now, the faculty's pay has been cut. CCSF wore the difficulties of budget cuts and now the ACCJC is being "tough." CCSF is being made to scramble, on its new budget, to fulfill requirements.

CCSF mission campus.JPG

Entrance with mosaic at CCSF's new Mission Campus building. Photo: Molly Hankwitz


MORE CONTEXT

Judgments of CCSF may have appeared fair and rigorous due to the authority of the ACCJC and mainstream news reporting. It would all appear an assertive official effort to "clean up" a faltering and unworthy urban institution. But, it's easy these days to send morality plays through the news when education is being debated and reformed as hotly as it is in this country presently. "Crisis" makes for dramatic reading. More astute thinking, however, cannot separate one act of large-scale political indifference from another. These are divisive times politically. From the Tea Party forcing government shutdown to evictions and foreclosures plaguing neighbhorhoods. One must read the swashbuckling neo-liberal moves to destabilize cities, land, economies,and communities as having divisive and conservative similarities.

For one, the CCSF attack is consistent with other backlash targeting minority and lower-income Americans. The Supreme Court's decision on the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Trayvon Martin verdict, the Tea Party's blockade of Obamacare, corporate and right-wing efforts to push in "states' rights", and the secret, nighttime addition (by Republicans) of limitations to birth control in health care are clear-cut efforts to curtail liberty and equity for all.

Poor countries have been strangled by destabilization. Economies have fallen to enforced "austerity" measures, heavily militarized police action, censorship and violence. Privatization of public assets, the pervasive argument that there is no money without corporate management, has proven extremely successful. In league with media outlets convincing the public that assets must be privately managed and controlled and other economic justifications is relatively simple. We have heard these arguments in K-12 public education, parks and recreation, public transportation and regarding the removal of community-governed farms, libraries and gardens. It started with Bush's "bail out" transaction paid from the tax-payer funded US Treasury and continues with the push towards privatization of higher education.


LAYING BLAME, TAKING ACTION

Interests behind frequently clandestine initiatives, like those used to discredit and restructure CCSF, must be profoundly resisted. Their work undermines progress towards a open, democratic civil society; above all our capacity for free thought and the right to self-representation of populations.

In a singularly well-worded lawsuit, City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera's office has proceeded against the ACCJC for “using the accreditation process to squelch debate with respect to education reform in Sacramento”.(LA Times,2013) Their move sheds light upon the agency's agenda for including CCSF in its already overly-punitive track record of punishing California's community colleges. This commendable insight into the political practices of the ACCJC across the state comes as some welcome relief to an else-wise silent or "on side" City Hall.


RESISTANCE, PROTESTS, SPEAK OUTS

Efforts to resist the attack in the community are vigorous. (See links below.) CCSF has been working to stay open despite the imposition of the ACCJC and its effects upon enrollment. Declining enrollment means more State funding lost. Loss of accreditation would only make that situation worse. This is how the ACCJC's attack is punitive and counter-productive to a school already beset with budget cuts. CCSF needs money to function at anywhere near its past or present level of good. It is being pushed down by the ACCJC. It has been undermined. One Trustee has been appointed to dictate. Held unduly responsible for the State's budget crisis, and the heavy-handed methods of the ACCJC, CCSF needs its students and its support to survive.


CC is now open sign.JPG

Thousands are working to keep CCSF open.

Photo: Molly Hankwitz


MORALE KILLING

Ways in which the attack on CCSF has played out across the community, fall into camps belonging to the neo-liberalized, capitalist media "speak" which has assailed CCSF over and over as fiscally irresponsible and failing to maintain standards. Implications are that CCSF is behind the times, but this argument is transparent. It is an "old and new" argument, preparing for a future of "real" change designated from above, as it were, which will be more up to date. There is no mitigating circumstance or community voice. Public radio and the San Francisco Bay Guardian,however, reliably left wing, promoted community voice, and published how elements of Obama administration rhetoric are to blame for the maneuvering around state and national education. (Bay Guardian editorial, 2013)

Measures to disrupt CCSF's community have hurt. Faculty received eleven percent pay cuts. This was to be prevented by Prop. A. San Franciscan voters wholeheartedly supported Prop. A. Long term teachers' course loads were reduced. Their classes have been renamed and syllabi handed over to younger colleagues with the excuse that attrition rates were at fault. These contract-breaking tactics hold faculty responsible. It is not the faculty's fault or that of a school under financial pressures from State bungling, that enrollment is in decline.


CONFUSION AND UNDERMINING

Threat of closure has felt like robbery, an out and out heist of a public asset by private sector interests, starting with the ACCJC. Ultimately, it's self-representation v. "top down" distanced management with an undisclosed and harmful agenda.

When locks were suddenly changed in classroom buildings without notifying Faculty and staff, the message was clear. The CCSF workforce had come and gone freely for years. In one case a native plant garden, carefully tended by a Native American gardener, was ordered removed to be replaced, the gardener was told, with less overtly cultural landscaping.

The disappearance of departmental chairs, faculty pay cuts, “downsizing“ of student services, and commercialization of the bookstore all happened so quickly, that there was little time to understand, except to understand. It has been as if CCSF is slated for intellectual demolition. Visions of the campuses falling silent dismay a public familiar with San Francisco land grabs and rapid gentrifying elements. The neo-liberal attack, even if the college stays open. It has already disturbed the coherence of the school.

CCSF is not only important to San Francisco but to the Bay Area. Radio talk shows about CCSF's accreditation have callers angry over the effects upon community. One ESL teacher from the East Bay ended a righteous rant about the war on minority students with, ”Oakland has no more adult public higher education.” It was chilling.


CIVIL RIGHTS AND EDUCATIONAL EQUITY ARE A NATIONAL ISSUE

National events in Washington, Florida and elsewhere this year have targeted the public sector, particularly, people of color and the poor. The New York Times reports that 1 in 5 children live in poverty in the United States. (NY Times, 10/1/2013) Income discrepencies show people of color significantly poorer and more unemployed overall than similarly aged white people; approximately 50% of people of color, both African American and Latino, to a mere nine percent of whites. These numbers lend backdrop to the climate of deprivation surrounding dis-accreditation and the threat to CCSF. The school has helped thousands of poorer and minority students, those most likely to use its services, to gain social and political ground through higher education. Where will these students go and what will their future prospects be in a system oppresses them further? Conservative attacks on affirmative action of the 90s have already shown how short sighted some can be when it comes to addressing equity. Is the tactic this time to bleed important institutions dry financially, then attack them further, and force them to close?

SERIES OF ATTACKS


Starting from the top, is the Supreme Court's decision to take down important parts of the 1965 Voters' Rights Act on the thinly laid argument that the racial discrimination leading to this seminal legislation is no longer operative. To be clear, the Voter's Rights Act is a piece of law protecting minorities from discrimination at the polls. Just as Roe v. Wade is a piece of law that enables women to lead their own lives with the right of privacy over their own bodies, the Voter Rights Act protects minority voters' rights to participate in elections. Yet within hours of the Court's decision, racially-divided states set about re-zoning voting districts and drawing boundaries which would substantially affect voter turnout in the future. It is an historic fact and feature of his election that President Obama won states where voter turn out for minority and poor populations was especially high. Has fear of the career success of President Obama helped turned the tables on civil rights from voting to higher education?

The not-guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting ricocheted across the nation. Fatal wounding of young people of color by those armed and sanctioned to use weapons is being legally protected by the judicial system. This sets a dangerous precedent and constitutes another link in a chain of racist backlash being glossed over in the mainstream media by such ideals as the “Martinizing” of the Obama presidency with its high profile marches on Washington in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. As Smiley and West have pointed out, sentimentality towards King does little but put frosting on a situation which King himself would have regarded as abhorrent---that is the trading of civil rights laws for ineffectual "feel good" histories as easily forgotten as they are enjoyed. President Obama, while he may be an advocate for affordable health care is no King after all. Martin Luther King was a pacifist, deeply against the Vietnam War, and an activist in that capacity.

What is real, however, is the shape-shifting of top courts and justices, legal maneuveuring legislating inequality, creating new laws around voters' rights, womens' rights, use of lethal weapons, the closing of borders, and the de-waging and under valuation of poor citizens on the basis of race, gender, and income. Where does this growing systemic inequality best take root? Arguably, in attacks on cultures of accessible, affordable education for all. It is here that populations stand to lose the most ground in terms of their access to opportunity, personal growth, prosperity and identity.


THE TOLL

Beleagurement of the other is but one pernicious outcome of chauvanistic ruling power. It is observed in the widespread modeling and adoption of “Stop and Frisk” police methods in New York and Oakland, in the problem of Oscar Grant's shooting death going all but excused, and of “inner city” hatred emerging as far back as the Nixon and Reagan administrations when many urban policing laws were put in place and more disenfranchised people started living in the street.

If you are a person of color and poor, today — even with a half Black president — you can be screwed out of your vote, stopped and frisked without a warrant, and are as likely in 2013 to be the target of police brutality or "acceptable levels" of violence from someone wearing a badge than you ever have been before.

Unfortunately, to my mind, the destruction of CCSF due to a financial explanation and showing little faith in its sustained purpose or public good, is a heartless account fitting right into the current, reactionary cycle of governmental shutdown/control and domination. Most importantly, the attack is a disavowal of the importance of political difference, as Herrera's lawsuit amplifies, of multiple cultures and expressions of culture which make San Francisco and the US, great. It is nearly tantamount, instead, to an act of blind, cultural warfare supported through the justifications of power in a manner similar to that described by Hardt and Negri as the growth of "just wars" under empire.


DOE

In 2009, the Department of Education swept the country with educational imperatives in hand. They held multiple public meetings on minority education in public and charter schools in numerous states including our own at the Main Library in Civic Center. In the Bay Area, attendees, including myself, heard from young Oakland activists of color about the state of Oakland's schools, which when moved from being public to Charter status under the DOE's plans for educational reform, frequently became more whitened and were no longer seen as serving or belonging to minority populations. The activists cited in particular the American Indian Middle School, which “went charter” and lost its community character. Actions such as the people's sit-in at Lakeview Elementary in Oakland 2012, underscore further, the degree of struggle being undertaken to protect public schools from outside "takeover". This is in the context, too, of neighborhoods being gentrified and of the extensive publicity of crime rates and participation in crime from Oakland's black youth. At the same time, it is very important to respond to the fact that if it had not been for the African American press, the Oscar Grant story would probably have disappeared altogether.


SUSTAINABILITY NOT GENTRIFICATION

In the modern history of the United States, the quality of life, and open, free-wheeling civic participation of community in city politics have been progressive values embodied by the city of San Francisco. Residents here, after all, helped to build a radical movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, against the invasion of the Gulf in the nineties and Iraq in the 2000s. We have been the first to implement many critical chapters in the history of womens' rights, gay rights, and AIDS research. Occupy SF was a vibrant and challenging chapter in the city's recent political history. Part of this progressive tradition has been the building of CCSF as a deeply engaged institution providing quality low-cost higher education to the lumpen mass without student loan debt.

CC mural.JPG

Copernicus and the Aztecs as inspiration. Muralist: Emanuel Paniagua

Photo: Molly Hankwitz

The point here is to lay bare the consistency of neo-liberal attack strategies, the connection between depriving populations of public assets and other forms of oppression now emerging in the local and national political landscape. Above all, it is to point out the pointlessness of destroying something proven to be an effective resource beneficial to San Francisco residents--an sanctuary for the poor---when with a better set of ideas, it could be prevented.

All citizens deserve the right to higher education! What the responsibility of California's cities is to their populations under seige, regarding this issue in the future, remains to be seen. CCSF should be preserved as the amazing institution it is. It should be saved. It needs our support. It is our College! Our city!


The author wishes to thank Richard Baum for his camaraderie and factual assistance, and Walter Alter for his correspondence and research. She is the initiator of The City College of San Francisco Community History Project (continually being added to Found SF) and seeks to collect stories, photographs, and details about CCSF from the community of San Francisco. She is working on a video installation about City College and urban education for the masses for ATA's window gallery on Valencia Street.

For more information, please contact: mollyhankwitz [at] gmail [dot] com


Notes / City Attorney Files Suit

San Francisco sues Panel over City College Accreditation

Save Our City College

Here's Real History in the Making: Fighting to Save City College

Diego Rivera mural at CCSF