The accreditation crisis is over! We won a battle that should never have happened!
We have all heard the news by now that City College San Francisco has full accreditation for seven years. We have won a battle that should never have occurred.
We should all take a moment to celebrate our amazing victory! A victory that came about because we embodied the best of human values:
- A strong commitment to the important work that we do as educators.
- A deep love and solidarity that we showed toward each other during the crisis.
- A willingness to tell the truth, and to fight for that truth, in spite of overwhelming odds.
It is a story of courage on the part of our faculty and our allies. I have never been prouder of our union as I am today.
Because of what we have gone through, and that we won, we have lessons to teach people on how to move forward and win against a bully. These lessons will be valuable in the days ahead during the Trump presidency. It is our responsibility to share them with others:
1) Be willing to stand up and tell truth to power, particularly when there is a systemic abuse of authority.
2) Organize ourselves internally and reach out to all allies in the community to make change happen.
3) Resist the urge of turning against each other by forces that want to divide us.
We must continue to show the best of human values and share these lessons that we have learned.
The last 4 1/2 years have been difficult ones. I know that all of you have taken a terrible toll from the stress and fear of not knowing what our future holds. There is still the damage to our college that was inflicted by the ACCJC and its systemic abuse of authority that we must address. But now we can turn to new challenges and move forward to rebuild our college and get back to the important work we do for students and our community.
Tim Killikelly
AFT 2121 President
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