Educational Opportunities Continue to Decline at City College of San Francisco

Educational Opportunities Continue to Decline at City College of San Francisco
BY Rick Baum

In 2012, City College of San Francisco’s accrediting agency placed the college on show cause requiring those in charge to show why the college should remain open. This action was taken despite the accreditor’s visiting team concluding, in their words, that the college’s “instructional programs in credit and non-credit programs provide high-quality instruction to meet the needs of the community…” while it “confirmed” that the college “provides comprehensive and accessible student services to its students…”

Yes, you read that correctly, the college was being threatened with closure despite doing what one hopes a college does, provide high quality instruction and comprehensive student services.

Since the beginning of its accreditation crisis, the number of enrolled students at City College of San Francisco (CCSF), according to the state chancellor’s data mart (https://datamart.cccco.edu/DataMart.aspx), has plummeted by more than 57%, almost 40,000, from 68,786 in the Fall of 2011 before the onset of the crisis to 29,241 for the Fall of 2025. This massive decline in enrollment suggests a goal of the accreditors, helped along by the administration scheduling fewer classes and closing facilities, has been to downsize CCSF.

In the fall of 2011, 3,458 credit classes and 1,253 non-credit classes were scheduled. For the Fall 2025 term, the comparable numbers were 1,801 and 282. And for Fall 2026, the numbers are slightly higher. As of July 13, 1,806 credit classes with 18 added since the previous week and 285 non-credit classes are scheduled. (for classes each term, go to https://ssb1.ccsf.edu:8105/StudentRegistrationSsb/ssb/term/termSelection?mode=search)

In contrast to CCSF, the San Mateo District has scheduled 2,386 credit classes for fall 2026, 580 more credit classes than CCSF even though, according to the state chancellor’s data mart, it had 8,500 fewer students than CCSF for Fall 2025.

The Contra Costa District with 32,108 students in Fall 2025 has scheduled 3,479 credit classes for Fall 2026, almost twice as many credit classes as CCSF, even though its student population in the Fall of 2025 was not even 10% higher than the number attending CCSF.

As I wrote in articles published by 48 Hills last year and the previous year, what is likely preventing a further increase in the overall enrollment at CCSF has been the administration not seeing fit to add classes in fields in which there is a high demand. That has resulted in hundreds of students being unable to enroll in classes that one needs to take to meet program requirements.

As of July 13, there were 47 Biology classes scheduled, one more than the previous year. All but two nutrition classes were fully enrolled. The rest of the scheduled classes had waitlists totaling 379 students. That number would likely be much higher were the waitlists of students hoping to enroll in Biology classes were not limited to 10 per class in the 28 classes already with full waitlists. Specific examples of classes with full waitlists include all six General Human Anatomy classes and the five Introduction to Microbiology classes.

Only 17 chemistry classes are scheduled for Fall 2026, one less than the previous year. That can be contrasted to 28 classes in Fall 2021 despite there being over 4,450 more students enrolled in Fall 2025 than Fall 2021. As of July 13, there are 28 open seats in chemistry classes with 23 of them in a 1.5 unit problem solving class. The three sections of Introduction to Chemical Principles have completely full wait lists of 20 students each. The five Introduction to Medical Chemistry are full with waitlists allowing for 30 students coming to 132 students. They and the rest of the classes have waitlists that currently total 218 students seeking a slot.

The problem of too few classes impacts other academic areas at CCSF. There are 52 sections of English C1000 Academic Reading and Writing for Fall 2026, the same number as there were for Fall 2025. While there are 57 openings, 316 students are on waitlists ready to fill those openings.

Additionally, other classes are already fully enrolled including all 86 art classes. The six Financial Accounting classes have only 2 remaining openings with waitlists in those classes fully enrolled limited to ten totaling 38 students.

There are ten Elementary Spanish classes. One has 23 openings. The rest are fully enrolled with 62 students on waitlists. Twenty-six Introduction to Public Speaking classes have 24 open seats with 183 on waitlists limited to 10 per class.

Many potential students do not register for classes until shortly before or after the start of the term. They will likely be disappointed by the lack of available classes.

At a time when CCSF needs to enroll more students to get needed funding from the state, a sufficient number of classes are not being offered, likely driving students away from CCSF in search of a college that offers the classes they need and/or want to take.

Facilities Closed Down

Further discouraging enrollment has been the closing of college facilities located throughout the city. Since 2012, Civic Center, Fort Mason, Southeast, and the Airport as well as numerous other instructional sites have been closed.

Recently, the current chancellor has continued this trend. She announced in early March that no classes would be scheduled in the Downtown facility for the Fall 2026 term, essentially closing it, even though, according to an editorial in The Guardsman on April 13, 2026, the student newspaper, “At the Jan. 28 Town Hall, the administration and Chancellor Messina claimed there was no plan to close the DTC, and promised more classes.”

Furthermore, at the Board meeting on May 28, the chancellor said, (shortly after 4:38:35 and 5:48:45 at https://ccsf.granicus.com/player/clip/2359?view_id=2&redirect=true), that the downside of selling the Downtown facility, something she claimed to oppose, “would be a lack of City College of San Francisco presence in a downtown area that’s been very important to us and very important to our college and to that community.” Yet, if no classes are held in the facility, what kind of presence would the college have in downtown San Francisco?

The main justification given for scheduling no classes for the fall at the Downtown facility was too few students enrolling in classes making keeping it open too costly. However, too few students should have come as no surprise since a total of only 37 non-credit classes and no credit classes were scheduled for the 2025-2026 Fall and Spring terms. By comparison, as recently as 2023-2024 Fall and Spring terms, 27 non-credit and 34 credit courses were scheduled, and in 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring terms, before covid, 174 non-credit and 159 credit classes were held in the Downtown facility. When the number of classes is cut, surprise, surprise, the number of students enrolling in the facility declines.

Essentially, by closing facilities and reducing the number of scheduled classes, the administration is harming the educational opportunities provided to students in the community who are predominantly working class students of color.

Part of the administration’s excuse for not allocating more money for more classes is anticipated future budget shortfalls. The college now has a projected reserve account of over what is called a “projected actual” amount of $64 million, $5.9 million more than what they anticipated in their projected budget adopted in the Fall of 2025. (see pg. 20 https://go.boarddocs.com/ca/ccsf/Board.nsf/files/DLC2B801582F/$file/2025-26%20Adopted%20Budget%20-%20FINAL.pdf and https://ccsf.community.highbond.com/document/572dd0f9-29c9-4100-9e14-9d60a6382370/ ) Shouldn’t part of it, especially the amount over their original projection, be used to add more classes to bring enrollment back to where it was as recently as 2018 when 48,201 students were enrolled for the first fall term after the college received its full accreditation that had been threatened since 2012?

However, the administration prefers to impose austerity. Basically, instead of scheduling more classes and keeping facilities open to attract more students, they reduce the number of classes and drive students away, putting at risk much of the long-term state funding largely dependent on students taking classes.

Hopefully, before the end of the summer, the administration will act to add classes to meet the educational needs of what would likely be many more students.
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Rick Baum has been teaching Political Science at City College of San Francisco for more than 25 years and is a member of AFT 2121. He has written for CounterPunch, New Politics, the CPFA Journal, and Monthly Review.