Dive Summary:
- The City College of San Francisco is faced with an accreditation crisis that could end with the school being shut down next year, which would prove to be a nightmare for California's largest public college and its 90,000 students but is something observers say isn't a realistic option.
- A state-commissioned analysis found that CCSF is dangerously close to bankruptcy, and a report from the Fiscal Crisis and Management Team found that the school employs twice as many full-time faculty per student as comparable colleges in the system, has far more support staff than other districts and has only 40 administrators on staff.
- According to California Competes, a nonprofit group led by Robert Shireman, shared governance in the state's community college system prevented CCSF from being able to make tough decisions like trimming jobs and budget fat.
From the article:
Robert Shireman has long criticized colleges and lawmakers for not doing enough to protect lower-income students. But now that he's back in California, after a stint battling for-profit colleges for the U.S. Department of Education, Shireman has found a new opponent: faculty leaders at the state's community colleges and an approach to shared governance he says created the mess at City College of San Francisco. Meanwhile, City College's fight to keep its doors open got a little more desperate this week. ...