In 2013, the Board of Governors (BOG) voted to suspend the democratically elected Board of Trustees for the San Francisco Community College District (SFCCD), and place their authority in the hands of an appointed special trustee for the term of one year. The stated purpose of this removal of local control was to be able to retain accreditation and return the Community College of San Francisco (CCSF) to “fiscal health.”
However, during the trustee’s term, CCSF lost its accreditation and appears worse off instead of better as a result of this centralization of authority. Despite claims of fiscal health, it was only through the cutting of classes and reduction of staff that this so-called health has been achieved. How can an institution tasked with the education of the community be considered healthy when it abandons the interests of this very same community? It is clear that the policies of the special trustee revolve around the promotion of a narrow set of interests that run counter to those of the people.
These are just a few of the reasons that numerous students and faculty from CCSF came to the BOG meeting in order to let it be known that the people do not support the extension for another year of the special trustee with extraordinary powers. Of the 24 members of the public who spoke, all had a common message: We want democracy. We want accountability from those at the top. We want the restoration of the locally elected Board of Trustees and an end to the authority of the special trustee.
Tarik Farrar, chair of African American Studies at CCSF, put these ideas into words, emphasizing the need of returning control to the Board of Trustees: “Democracy lives in these local communities. In these bodies we can affect change, we can make things happen. It is here that democracy has roots, it is from the bottom up that it grows.” He went on to ask the BOG, “Do we wish to strengthen the institutions of democracy or weaken them?”
Their answer to this question was clear as the BOG voted to extend the term of the special trustee for at least another six months. This left the people outraged and speaks to how out of touch the BOG is with the will of its constituents.
CCSF demands democratic governance and an end to the autocratic rule of the special trustee! Community Colleges for the people, not for profits!
