When Tarik Farrar, chair of City College of San Francisco's Department of African American Studies, took the bullhorn Wednesday last week at a protest, he told a tale of two colleges. "One college is Heald College, the other is City College," Farrar said. "In 2012, both colleges were evaluated by the ACCJC (Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges). Heald College was given full accreditation," he explained, while CCSF was placed on the path of losing its accreditation. "As the result of those decisions, thousands of students are suffering."
About 100 students and faculty had gathered on Ram Plaza for a "walkout" called by student groups in protest of some of the changes made at the school since it was threatened with losing its accreditation in 2012 by the ACCJC. Among the students' demands were the removal of a special trustee with extraordinary powers (an appointed leader who has assumed governance from the elected board of trustees), restoring funding to diversity studies, and an end to a policy that requires students to pay course fees up front.
Performing arts students and faculty led the crowd in a rousing, seven-verse rendition of "Mack the Knife" with lyrics rewritten to bemoan the cancellation of construction of a new building to house music, theater, and dance programs. The protestors marched around the Ocean Avenue campus before piling into Conlan Hall and declaring they would stay in place until their demands were met — or until the next morning came.
"We usually stay until 8 a.m. or 9 a.m.," said Lalo Gonzalez, a 26-year-old student and one of the protest organizers. (When police ordered the protesters to disperse around 7 p.m., they decided to leave rather than risk arrest.)
It was far from the first time student activists have held a sit-in at the embattled school's administration building over the past few years, and there was something a bit rote about the execution. Still, there is something triumphant about continuing protests at City College, if for no other reason than that the school's doors remain open.
The same can't be said for Heald, the private, for-profit college in San Francisco that was part of the Corinthian Colleges chain that has been under investigation for predatory lending practices and misrepresenting its job placement numbers for graduates. The school unexpectedly shut down last week, leaving thousands of students in the lurch.
The reversal of fortunes between Heald and CCSF is not so much vindicating as "enraging" to Farrar, who is struggling to keep a full slate of African American Studies courses on the books while the school attempts to regain the levels of enrollment it boasted prior to the accreditation fight. One source of new students may be Heald. In the days following the closure, CCSF staff headed to Heald's campus to enroll stranded students.
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