December 2013 Advocate – ACCJC & CCSF’s accreditation


Forums on the ACCJC’s sanctioning of CCSF held at CSM and at City College


Many concerns raised about ACCJC’s accreditation procedures and the impact of a potential closure

As City College of San Francisco (CCSF) continues working to avert closure in the wake of sanctions by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and numerous subsequent legal actions against the ACCJC by the CFT, the San Francisco City Attorney, the U.S. Department of Education and others, a public forum on the CCSF accreditation situation was held at CSM on Monday, October 28. The forum was designed to help the faculty, students, and staff in the San Mateo District understand why the ACCJC is threatening to close City College, one of the largest community colleges in the country, in July 2014, and to solicit support for CCSF from our college communities.

    The speakers at the forum included Jaime Borrazas, an ESL instructor at CCSF for 32 years; Ariel Hiller, a City College student who started at CCSF as an ESL student and has continued as a Labor and Community Studies major while working for the past several years; and Rafael Mandelman, a member of the CCSF Board of Trustees. SMCCCD Chancellor Ron Galatolo introduced the panel of speakers and also made extended comments of his own throughout the forum. A six-minute video of excerpts from the forum can be viewed here.

    About a week after the CSM forum–on November 7–Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, joined hundreds of faculty, students and politicians who packed an auditorium on the main CCSF campus to challenge ACCJC’s accreditation procedures and call for keeping City College open. Chancellor Galatolo was also on the stage and again made remarks expressing his deep concern regarding the actions of the ACCJC. Thus far, he is the only community college CEO in the state who has been willing to publically speak out against the ACCJC’s intention of closing down CCSF.  A video of the entire forum (2 hours +) can be viewed here and a 20-minute condensed version of the forum is viewable here.