streets. i personally have been to two institutions that have been [speaker not understood] from underneath me. and i think that [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. (applause) good afternoon, supervisors. my name is eric noble. i'm a graduate of city college of san francisco. i was one of the flower in your hair college drop outs who came to san francisco during the summer of love. i dropped back into college late in my career -- my work career. i am retired now. it took me six years to graduate from city college since i was working full time during that time. so, i stand before you as one of the nontraditional students who were targets of accjc's effort to change city college's

long-standing mission to serve multiple learning communities. in my six years at city college, i consistently found the teachers to be both engaged and engaging. after i transferred to san francisco state, i had several teachers tell me that their best students were the transfer students from city college of san francisco. two things i would like to ask the board of supervisors of san francisco to do. first, if you haven't already done so, please read the california federation of teachers complaint against accjc. it's a lengthy document, well researched and well written. what's clear to me after reading cft's complaint is that accjc is a rogue agency. what is also clear is that the cards are stacked against city college. the rules of the game are stacked. that leads me to my next

request. second, what i think is needed on the part of the friends of city college now is political pressure, first on the department of education to have you accjc rescind its actions against city college ~ and political pressure on sacramento and our state legislators to restore the master plan for higher education [speaker not understood]. thank you. (applause) hello, everyone. my name is [speaker not understood]. i'm part of students making change. i'm also part of the student involvement [speaker not understood] undocumented student club on campus. and i just want to talk about the reality that a lot of people have been avoiding about city college of san francisco. as a student i've been part of this city college for two years.

i just recently finished all my studies last semester. but, you know, like a lot of things are happening here, you know, there are a lot of problems in city college like we have bathrooms that haven't been fixed. we have -- [speaker not understood]. we also have a lot of resistance in terms like a couple years ago we had our resource center being requested by undocumented students and, you know, it was really sad to walk in the halls and see people that weren't smiling at me really hurt, a lot of hypocracy. because at that point at that moment, those people were the ones that were accessing the [speaker not understood] resource center and now they are like here trying -- because they're losing their jobs, saying that you know, they're advocating for students of color when at that point they weren't advocating for it. the second point is at that moment to [speaker not understood] we were fighting

for entrance for low-income students and [speaker not understood] undocumented students on the registration. and the problem we have, we have the same problem, a lot of staff in there were like hypocritical. again, they were saying students -- that money shouldn't be placed [speaker not understood] because it was a waste of money. and now we see the staff smiling at us and telling us that they are advocating for students of color. i'm tired of like all these people telling us, talking about our reality when they don't really connect with us and, you know, it's really sad and it's [inaudible]. you know. frustrating to see [inaudible]. >> thank you. next speaker, please. (applause) hello, my name is [speaker not understood] i'm part of [speaker not understood]. i'm pacific islander on campus and one of the few pacific islanders advocating for all the pis [speaker not

understood]. i'm happy that you're here because all of these people live in your jurisdiction. so, thank you so much and john avalos. i just want to state that six years ago i started at ccsf and this fall i'll be transferring to sf state. it took me six years, but three years throughout my six years to advocate and ask for resources and ask for implementations on policies that affect my people, my pacific islander folks. the same people who are here to attack and judge accjc were the same people who resisted change in this college. and i'm standing here as a student and as an advocate, it is a shame. for me to see this happening when we all could have just been like let's work together. that was the problem. we are judging these people that came in, that i saw that problem six years ago. they just barely got here a year ago to address the same issues that i've been fighting for, undermining the work that

students who are making a change part of a whole new program to address equity achievement gaps. to make sure that students are getting out of ccsf within two years, not six years. so, by all means, as a board and as a people that are part of the city, you have to look at the power tripping that is going on at ccsf. there is a lot of that and you need to fixed this college. stop plaming people for our mistakes when we could have done it six years ago, 14 recommendations that were added to us we could have avoided them if we all did the work collectively. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. nobody going to clap? (applause) hi, my name is lena carew. i went there from 2006 to 2011 before i transferred to u.c. berkeley. as a city college student i started students making a change that is -- focuses on leadership development and

civic engagement, which raul and christie are part of. i started that program at city college because we want to directly address issues impacting equity, impacting low-income, students of color to achieve and to help us overcome barriers that make us feel like it's our fault. so, so, you know, when -- we can stand here and say there are some -- that there are lots of different issues that either exist or don't exist by people on different side, but no one can stand here and tell me students have access to wi-fi when they need it. there is no one that can stand here and tell me we didn't have issues with shared governance. that democracy has to be hard, but it doesn't have to be impossible. i really urge the community to come together in a real way and that if we actually truly love our college and our community that we'll be the number one critics of it and do everything we can to fix it. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. (applause) >> i'll call a few more cards

before the speakers speak. marco [speaker not understood]. fitzgerald. stephen farr, i believe. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood]. jaime [speaker not understood]. and roy son eisner. hello, supervisors. i want to thank you for giving me an opportunity to be here and have my voice be heard. one reason is because the student trustee of city college shanell williams, she was barred from the chancellor's search committee meeting last week or a week-and-a-half ago, she was the only person who was barred, and she is our voice. she speaks for 85,000 students. and she was barred by the city

college police. i'd like to go on and say it is hard to believe why our community college is being sanctioned foreperson at conflicts between campus ceos and the employees. why the campus is being sanctioned because they are legally prohibited for violating negotiated collective bargaining agreements. accjc is a non-state agency lacking adequate state accountability and has unleashed authority to oversee state funded community collegeses. it is also a bureaucratic mess of contradictions. while the community college faculty staff and administrators are being forced to ban their normal student and campus responsibilities in order to comply with unsubstantiated accjc mandates. when did a community college become based more on the institution's governance

process, which is -- thank you -- dedicated by california state laws and less on the quality of education being provided? these are important questions that we believe the state audit will answer and i'm honored to be joined by [speaker not understood] in this effort to examine whether our community colleges and students are being treated fairly, consistently and without bias. we ask for your support to ensure our safe public community colleges are not being forced to waste [speaker not understood] through the fees and taxpayer dollars. [inaudible]. >> thank you. >> thank you. (applause) hello, my name is marco low be and i'm a current ccsf student and i'm going to be a future college student there. ~ lopez if the community did not have the opportunity to attend city college and all of its programs, we would not have the means to change our choices in

life. this freedom of choice to attend ccsf and the process of education is a tool to help many inspire and focus towards goals. excuse me. many of which seek focus from and is a means to inspire youth and adults of all cultural, religious, sexual backgrounds, and various incomes that a public needs to obtain equality through education that should exist. without this opportunity, many students and teachers would be without the means to better themselves financially and socially and would result in a devastating change in environment. economically and in our quality of life as a society. this would be a direct result from discrediting our past, present, and our future students who have graduated, will be graduating, and would graduate in the future. this lack of education will promote crime and doubt success

in many minds of elementary and high school students, both public and private, who do not have a means to pay for their education as a direct result from the belief that they do not have equal opportunity to higher their education no matter their financial situation. without programs such as city college, students with disabilities would not have the means to assimilate into our culture and be themselves as being equal. one of the main points of the constitution of the united states of america states that in order to form more perfect union we need to promote general welfare. the declaration of independence states all men are created equal under life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. if our use for -- excuse me. if our use [inaudible]. >> thank you. >> thank you. that's your time. thank you. (applause) >> next speaker.

[inaudible] current student at san francisco state. i'm taking classes at city college to fulfill some requirements because there are some classes i am unable to get at san francisco state. so, if city college were to close, some students from san francisco state would be adversely affected. it's not just some, however. i'm also taking -- well, let me start this again. i ask that you guys do all that you can in your power to ensure city college remains open in its current state and form. not [speaker not understood], not privatized. city college serves a diverse range of demographics. not only for those who transfer, but newcomers who don't yet know english. my mom is one great example. not only -- also those who are trying to get certificates to enhance their careers. i won't be able to complete my

geographic information system certificate at city college closes because i have to take pre-requisites for classes at state ~. so, basically, my mom took esl classes three times in her life when she was in san francisco. she'll be starting her third round of esl classes in the fall. and she wants to master english in order to have a better life in america, and she won't be able to do that if city college closes. my brother is also starting city college in the fall and won't be able to if city college closes, won't be able to achieve what he wants to do, and he wants to study law. i've been humbled by my experiences at city college and it's nothing like what my high school teachers and media have told me. i regret [speaker not understood] many of my [speaker not understood] as they will not transfer out in time because time is of the essence

to study and be the most successful student and i guess i'm out of time. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. my name is dawn moore. i'm alumni and current student is the ccsf. the accjc commission members did not reveal their hearts, goals, connectionses and how they got their position. but accjc wants to close ccsf or reduce ccsf in spite of ccsf, san francisco's people and our elected board. accjc statements that ccsf would and then they could and then they would lose

accreditation and, therefore, our enrollment stopped rising. and it's worked at compton junior college and they used that as proof because they didn't have an elected board any more, they eliminated, that compton junior college was not wanted and it was closed. many students want classes that are not [speaker not understood] classes yet they're important for san francisco. i am in a trauma recovery prevention certificate program. this is the only such program in california in a world of traumatized people. the students left out of ccsf will have to go to an expensive private school which will charge much higher fees, but provide a lesser quality education, findings by members of my own family.

to the bankers who will be happy to provide expensive loans with very high interest fee, and then once again, the bankers will be bailed out. and i think it's all about money for accjc. and it's simple as that. i don't think accjc cares. >> thank you. about other people. >> next speaker, please. (applause) good afternoon, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak. getting a college education was something that was very important to me. and i had my ged and i wanted to find the best place to do that. i moved from [speaker not understood] san francisco, partially because of the reputation of city college being affordable and also a good reflection of what the city actually is, a very

difficult verse population. something i really felt like i could grow well in. hearing how some people tend to talk about improving city college, you know, yeah, i want to voice my intensive -- my support that city college be preserved as it is a an institution that serves a lot of different age groups. two years ago i went to sacramento to see the -- to go be part of a hearing for the student success task force. there they talked about helping out the kids and how all city college of california, they kept talking about kid. they saw someone from the mayor's office talking repeatedly about the kids of city college. i think anyone who spent any time at city college can notice

that the average age of most of the people at city college is like 30 or so or plus. so, if i'm a kid, i guess that makes me a kid and i'm very happy to get that vote. but i think it's a shame to see where they intend to take city college. thanks for listening to my stumbling. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker, please. hello, my name is jaime [speaker not understood] and i at that time taught esl at city college until last semester. i was also esl coordinator at mission campus for eight years. when i started that job we had over 100 [speaker not understood] of esl noncredit at the mission campus. when i left at the end of last semester, there were 66 sections remaining.

seven of my colleagues retired from that campus. many people retired. i retired because i saw some very ugly handwriting on the wall and i recognized that the writing was by accjc. i sympathize very much with students who understand that there are problems at the college and blame the college for not solving those problems because i cannot [speaker not understood] problems when i was working there that i wish could have been fixed. but the bottom line in all this is do we really want opportunity for students who don't have the means to assume student loans, who don't have the high school grades to get accepted directly into a four-year school? most of the people i taught esl to were never going to go to college. they were immigrants. they wanted enough english to get a survival job. but i'll tell you, over the years i have met so many students who have come up to me all around san francisco thanking me for the very little

bit that i did and telling me how they became police officers, firefighters, bank vice presidents. these people are the people that have what it takes. and if we take away their opportunity, if we let the accjc take away that opportunity, we will be conspiring with one of the biggest criminal conspiracies against public education ever perpetrated in the united states. (applause) >> thank you. [speaker not understood]. i'd like to make this very clear first off that i definitely grew up on the wrong side of the property line and you can fill in the rest yourself. i worked my way through high school and in summer 2007 after i graduated a freak explosion in dolores park left me severely injured. for three years, i had to have surgery, physical therapy, that kind of thing.

city college allowed me to work around that schedule [speaker not understood]. i didn't take a lot of the classes that were general ed and pre-requisites. i took [speaker not understood] professors that were designed by them because they're passionate about it and in 2010 i was accepted to transfer into columbia university in the city of new york which was really exciting. i would not have gotten in if it weren't for columbia -- city college because my program is for nontraditional returning students. city college as it was, mission statement as it was, allowed me to be nontraditional. and had i taken the sort of course of action that accjc seems to think is appropriate for students to take to return to work, there are no credits that would have transferred to city college. [speaker not understood]. the quirky classes that were offered anywhere else [speaker not understood] were the ones that got me -- were the ones that helped me find out what i wanted to do once i got to university and also saved me

money because there is not that much in grants and i just think that there is so much [speaker not understood] the accjc, i understand that they and i have a totally different idea about the role of community education. but thinking that one course of action and spending six years is wrong or that taking these quirky studies classes is somehow not working to further educational goals is naive, [speaker not understood], i don't understand the way that education works. and i think how can we possibly be the quality control in this sort of situation [inaudible]. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. >> thank you very much. i have a handful more cards. lalo gonzalez, [speaker not understood]. shanell williams. and after that i'm out of cards. so people can line up along the wall if they'd like to speak. >> next speaker.

my name is karen [speaker not understood]. i'm past president of the academic senate and i did have a card in earlier. i had to be way when the card first came up. i was here at 10 o'clock this morning and i listened to the earlier presentation you had about the bad health effects of sugary drinks on the population of san francisco. you were listening to a project about making water available to help that problem. there was some mention made of educational aspects as well and i'd just like to point out, too, what city college offers in regard to that. as you look at this, you can see pages 38 to 39 we offer courses in nutrition. we have a whole program in health education that includes youth worker certificate and community health worker certificates to help people help their communities. in the child development area there is introduction to child nutrition. we also have nutrition cover one of the tov ix among others within the noncredit child development course he. there are health courses for older adults.

health nutrition is taught in consumer education program and that one is at 36 location around the city and some of those classes are taught in spanish or cantonese. and, of course, there is the credit and noncredit culinary programs that help people figure out how to eat better as well as drink more water and less sugar and so forth. i just wanted to -- i thank you very much for taking the time to look into what's happening at city college and to really understand the depth of what they offer the city. the faculty and staff of city college, as you know, are passionately devoted to providing education at all of these different levels to san francisco. you know, we work very hard at advocating. we're working equally hard on meeting the accreditation standards and we're working equally hard -- in fact hardest of all, on continuing to offer the very best education to students that we can for the

coming semester and for the spring semester. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. (applause) hello, thank you so much for being here today and listening to all of us. obviously this is incredibly important. my name is annie and i'm a city college student and full-time public high school teacher and i'm here for many reasons. on a personal level i attended city college for 2-1/2 years after high school before transferring to s.f. state. spending those two years at city college helped me if i can out what my interests were and gave me the opportunity to learn how to navigate productively through the post-high school world. ~ i know i'm not alone when i speak about the importance and impact of those years. on another personal level, i gave myself of the gift of going back to school concurrently as a high school teacher. it has not only benefited me greatly personally, but also on a professional level. i'm an art teacher taking art classes to benefit my practice.

my decision to go back to school part time has been one of the best decisions i have made in my adult life. it would be a shame if people like me weren't given the opportunity or option to do the same for themselves. city college is affordable and accessible. there is something for everyone and campuses all over the city to make it possible to attend to. again, it would be a shame to lose this treasure. finally, i'd like to address last and probably most importantly that i'm here, i'm a public high school teacher working with students from the excelsior, bayview, and sunnydale districts. my students and their siblings will be most affected by the loss of accreditation or any downsizing. many of my students from low-income communities can't afford to go straight to a four-year college. they have families to support, jobs to maintain, and simply need city college as an option instead of nothing at all or going into lifelong debt. a 12th grade student can take a

class [speaker not understood]. what would they do if city college close e what would we all do if city college was gone? thanks. (applause) ~ hi, my name is patty chung [speaker not understood] i'm a city college counselor with city college of san francisco. i'd like to thank you for holding this hearing today. first of all, i want to let you know my dad attended college city college of san francisco in 1951. it was because of city college he was able to learn english, find a union job and support his family. if it wasn't for city college of san francisco, i don't know where i'd be right now. but i am a counselor with my advance degree so i am city college. the other -- i wasn't planning on speaking today, but i really wanted to get up here and share with you something that i found very distressful. i think it was like the second semester when our interim

chancellor was at our college. it was a staff development day and all of us were called in to a huge auditorium and we had a speaker that sang the praises of university of phoenix. and we were told that we needed to offer more classes like them, online classes, putting more students so we could offer -- we serve more students by offering online classes. so, although that might be appropriate for some of our students, that's not representative of our whole student body. and i would like to keep city college accessible like the rest of my father and provide opportunities for people who otherwise would have none. thank you. >> thank you. (applause) >> next speaker. >> next speaker. hi, my name is angela mitch em and i'm a student at city college.

the experience i had in the last two semesters since i started city college is that the teachers there are amazing. they care about me as an individual. they care about my unique -- what i might have to bring that might be different. and where that might bring our community. the classes i've taken are trauma in the arts and i've done composition and i look forward to taking classes like sexual politics of violence and joining city college project survive program where they go into high schools in san francisco and teach about healthy relationships. this is something very important that city college offers to our community to educate youth and peers and their own quality of life