City College of San Francisco trustee Rafael Mandelman believes if something is wrong in the world, someone has to stand up and say enough.
According to Mandelman and his team of speakers composed of concerned students and faculty staff, the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges team that oversees functionality of community colleges in California is not supporting schools the way it should.
“ACCJC is a super important institution for all of California’s community colleges.
“And it should be performing a very useful function, where it evaluates all the community colleges; community colleges evaluate each other and everybody gets better. That’s what accreditation is supposed to be about.
“Instead, this particular accreditor, this set of people who are running the ACCJC, have been running around California threating schools with closure,” Mandelman said.
The main point CCSF is trying to get through to the audience that gathered in the Science Building lecture hall Tuesday is that ACCJC usually gives schools two years to correct what the committee deemed not compliant with the standards it set.
However, the City College of San Francisco has only been given eight months to correct the recommendations, which the union at CCSF believes is unfair; unfair to everyone that has something to do with the City College of San Francisco and the students.
A suit has been filed against ACCJC to try and restore the accreditation of the City College of San Francisco.
If San Francisco does not meet the recommendations, the school would face closure and the school would no longer function.
Karen Saginor stands with Mandelman in the resistance against ACCJC.
“It is important for one to find out where one’s college is in the accreditation process.
“An important piece of the accreditation process is self evaluation so students can get involved by helping their college work on a self evaluation.
“Then, it’s very important to understand that the accreditor that credits California community college at this point is not doing the job fairly,” Saginor said.
She said the ACCJC is unfair and wants students to “demand” for fair accreditation.
Charlene Jackson is a student that still attends the “show caused,” as the CCSF members put it.
She is a paramedic major at CCSF that, according to her, is very grateful for the classes the school has given her in her pursuit to become a paramedic.
Her concern is that many students like her will be left without a school under the accreditation standards set to the school.
The meeting showcased a video highlighting the main events that occurred on campus over at San Francisco.
After each speaker gave his knowledge on why ACCJC is unfair, the public was able to express questions and concerns to the three speakers.
“Get the effort to get informed,” Jackson said.
“My first involvment was when I went to the board of governors in Sacramento. I made a very personal statement about a perspective as a student to get the community motivated,” Jackson said.
For more information on this topic you can go these websites:
Cft.org
accreditiationwatch.com
aft2121.org
