Administration’s policy of cutting full-time faculty positions undermines enrollment

The number of faculty has fallen dramatically at City College, down from 1,740 in 2011, to 1,462 in Fall 2016. The number of full-time faculty is down by 229, from 823 to 594 during the same time period. However, in all of the recent discussion by administration or Board of Trustee members, this dramatic decline in full-time faculty and its potential impact on enrollment and program hasn’t even been acknowledged. The unwritten policy has simply been to replace as few full-time vacancies (from retirements or resignations) as possible to cut salary costs and class offerings.

With the offering of a retirement incentive, 58 full-time faculty are retiring at the end of this semester. The impact on program offerings could be devastating if the College doesn’t increase the number of replacement hires. In CCSF’s largest department, ESL, 19 full-time faculty are retiring at the end of 2016/17. However, administration has only approved the hiring of three faculty in the current full-time hiring process.  The Department reports that this will leave a minimum of 10.4 FTEF in unstaffed classes in the Fall. At Chinatown/NB campus alone, the equivalent of five FTEF of classes will be unstaffed. This represents a staggering cut in classes if more faculty are not hired, classes that are currently fully enrolled. The District tries to claim that they cannot find qualified applicants to teach, yet in the current ESL hiring there are over 90 applicants, including many experienced part-time instructors seeking full-time jobs.

The ESL Department is not alone; other Departments will struggle to staff viable classes and programs under the administration’s deliberate policy of reducing the number of full-time faculty at CCSF. It is time to stop the downsizing of the full-time faculty and replace vacant full-time faculty positions.

We are also calling for a moratorium on class cuts at our City College until the end of the Fall 2017 Semester. Earlier this month we opened the conversation about class cuts with the new members of the CCSF Board of Trustees. And we will keep organizing until we win. Please join us again for public comment on Thursday March 23 at 4pm on the Ocean Campus in MUB 140.