The meeting was one of several demands made by the students, who started demonstrating last week. At the meeting they laid out a few more demands. Interim City
College Chancellor Thelma Scott-Skillman was not very receptive. And now the students say they will walk out on March 14 and take their case to City Hall.
No one disputes City College is in trouble. But finding a way out of the crisis has been a point of contention between administrators and some teachers and students.
"We want to make some changes in terms of the management of our college but the solutions that the administration is proposing goes beyond that and the cuts that they are proposing are very drastic," student Shanell Williams said.
Students met Monday for 40 minutes with the interim Chancellor. This was one of their demands made last Thursday when they occupied the administration building.
"The Chancellor made it clear, we are not going backwards and we are going to save our college and accreditation," CCSF spokesperson Larry Kamer said.
Some teaching positions and classes have already been cut. Still, City College may lose its accreditation if it doesn't show that improvements are being made to make the college financially efficient by March 15. To do that, City College says it needs to renegotiate some of its labor agreements.
"We spend about 92 cents out of every dollar on wages, benefits, and retirement, that's high," Kamer said.
Students say administrators haven't tried hard enough to come up with other ways to bring in revenue. One of the proposals to avoid cuts is to obtain a bridge loan until Proposition A monies become available at the end of the year. Prop. A was passed to prevent more layoffs and improve the quality of the institution.
"And if the administration along with City Hall takes a stand to save our school, then those funds can be used to prevent the cuts," student Eric Blanc said. "It's a question of decisions and priorities."
Administrators at City College oppose any kind of loans because they say that would put them in more debt.
