I didn't think this could ever happen, but Joe Fitzgerald, the Guardian freelancer who has done the best coverage of the whole City College mess of anyone in town, just called with this scoop: City College has lost its accreditation.
It's horrible. It's unimaginable.
I just got off the phone with John Rizzo, president of the Community College Board, and he's livid. "We did so much," he told me. "We did everything [the accreditation board] asked us to do. We fired half the deans. We did five management restucturings. I can't believe it."
The mayor is holding a press conference by phone with the state chancellor -- and none of the current board members are allowed on the call. "It's a stolen press conference," Rizzo said.
Possible outcomes: Of course, the board can and will appeal. The state chancellor could take over the district. Some other district (say, San Mateo) could take it over.
But no matter what, it throws Prop. A, which allocates $15 million a year to City College, in doubt -- that money can't go to the state or to San Mateo.
What a mess. I'll keep you posted as I learn more.
This sheds new light on the "accreditation" process and I wonder if it wouldn't be interesting to start a movement to give back "accredited" degrees, at first at least for those of us for which there would be little consequence (e.g. retirees like me).
ReplyDelete-- Karl Young
I haven't lived in the Bay Area for 11 years, however, so I am not up on all that has come down, however, all of this sounds outrageous. After attending highly ranked state universities in other states, I found City College offered the same level of education in two science classes I took there, as was offered at those schools. This smacks of setting up City College for a takeover by for profit school corporations.
ReplyDeleteAs an alumna of CCSF, I find it deplorable that the college has been "discredited" by a group that is unelected and unaccountable. Attending CCSF in the late 60's was the beginning of my academic life. The courses and instructors were challenging, excellent, and character-building. I owe much of my character today to a couple of CCSF instructors whom I am gratefully indebted to. And to think that a tiny group of people with an agenda to shut down CCSF and turn it into a private institution is unbelievable. A friend of mine relayed this info. "...the Accreditation Commission has unjustly revoked CCSF's accreditation to take effect on July 2014 for reasons that have nothing to do with our quality of education, but are politically and ideologically motivated. This outrageous attack on City College of San Francisco, one of the largest and best in the country, is an attack on all public education.
ReplyDeleteThe Accreditation Committee is NOT a government entity, but part of a privately-funded commission which has acquired enormous power. It is funded by extreme right wing billionaires, such as the Koch brothers, and its mission is to dismantle public education, divert students to private colleges and force them to take out loans, and bust unions.
By taking down CCSF, which is the largest and one of the oldest community colleges in the nation, they hope to set a precedent."
So please empower everyone you know to keep CCSF alive, in the public purview, and out of privatization.