City College’s disrespectful relationship with African American administrators and the Black community

City-College-Southeast-Campus, City College’s disrespectful relationship with African American administrators and the Black community, Local News & Views
The Southeast Campus of City College, this handsome building at 1800 Oakdale in the middle of Bayview Hunters Point, has always been vastly underutilized. The community demanded this campus as mitigation for the harm caused by the decision to place the massive sewage treatment plant in Bayview Hunters Point, a neighborhood, then mostly Black, already “swimming in toxic soup,” as one scientist put it. But it’s never been the school then envisioned. Little effort has been made to learn and meet community needs and wants. In recent years, the City has begun to make plans to close the college and use the building for other purposes or demolish the building altogether.

by Blacks for a Better City College

City College of San Francisco has long touted its district and workforce as diverse. However, unbeknown to the community, the college has made little progress in hiring African Americans in leadership positions. Over the past decade, City College has hired, released and destroyed careers of prominent African Americans in senior-level leadership positions.

This historic demagogic leadership by the board and chancellors represents a hostile work environment. City College makes it challenging for African American administrators to show any progress or productivity. “City College used me to develop relationships with the Black community,” says one administrator.

African American students at City College have one of the lowest success rates in the state. Students attend other colleges in the area due to the lack of Black faculty and feeling criminalized by white faculty.

The Southeast Center in the Bayview community has been the college’s flagship center for African Americans. Course offerings have dwindled to four classes, and only one is transferable.

In comparison to other City College campuses, course offerings there are abysmal. “I can’t get any classes at the Southeast Campus and don’t know why City is in the Bayview,” says one student.

African American students at City College have one of the lowest success rates in the state.

Dr. Mark Robinson, a former administrator at CCSF who currently works at the Southeast Center is the only African American to leave the administration yet maintain his tenure status. Robinson says, “CCSF is a unique place. I come to work, do my job and go home. Hiring practices and attention to minority populations used to be the directive.”

Board members and the chancellor have shown little regard for the value of African American administrators. The chancellor recently discriminated against and fired two African American administrators based on allegations reported in a recent article.

In contrast, City College still employs a white senior vice chancellor after blatantly hiring her son as a dean, under her purview. He has no administrative experience, there was no hiring process and now they’re attempting to increase his salary from $108,000 to $208,000 according to recent board documents. These are facts, not allegations.

City College has recently placed an $845 million bond on the ballot for the election on March 3, 2020. Let your voice be heard during public comment at the CCSF board meetings every fourth Thursday of the month. The San Francisco African American community can no longer tolerate this behavior.

Blacks for a Better City College can be reached via campbellrock1@gmail.com.