May 6: James Tracy @ “Land Grabs, Student Push-out Policies and Downsizing: How the Gentrifiers are Gentrifying City College”
Join James Tracy, author of Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes from San Francisco’s Housing Wars, at a Save CCSF Coalition General Assembly on Wednesday, May 6th, 5:30 – 7:30 pm on the City College of San Francisco campus, in MUB 150
Join in a roundtable discussion of the rotten underbelly of the City College accreditation crisis: A prominent official in Sacramento told Tom Ammiano that Mayor Lee’s office has been pressing that CCSF’s elected Board of Trustees not be reinstated yet—Tom gathered that important real estate deals require more time to get wrapped up. We will share what we know about the land grabs of public property at 33 Gough and the Reservoir.
We will analyze the “January surprise” in which the current administration pushed out some 3100 already-enrolled students in a single week—in the middle of a major enrollment crisis! On January 7, 2015, some 1400 students with small overdue payments were robo-dropped about five weeks before their financial aid arrived, throwing their work schedules and childcare arrangements into chaos. Many never re-enrolled. Since the overdue payments averaged around $200, but each full-time for-credit student brings in a state appropriation of up to $4676, this unnecessarily aggressive payment policy costs the college far more than it could possibly recover.
On January 9th, the administration announced the abrupt closure of the Civic Center Tenderloin campus on one afternoon’s notice, on the grounds of seismic concerns. When some 2000 new immigrant students showed up for their ESL classes on the first day, the doors were locked and the administration provided directions to alternate sites—written in English! Only 300 students ever made it to an alternate site. 1700 more students gone—the same “disposable” non-credit students de-prioritized by the Student Success Act and the administration. Fiasco?–or downsizing policy, as in a vice chancellor’s statement to the SF Chronicle—“…we are in a serious transition to right-size the college” (10/25/13). Self-induced enrollment drops then provide the rationale for class cancellations and teacher layoffs, setting up a vicious cycle.
We will have a round table to share analysis and information (invited speakers):
- James Tracy will discuss the Civic Center closure and community resistance;
- MECHA and Asian Student Union organizers will discuss the payment policy;
- AFT 2121;
- Update on the PAEC and the Tues May 5th SF Planning meeting about the Reservoir, 7 pm, 140 MU
- The Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism—short videos on lessons from Chicago, where public school closures have been concentrated in gentrifying Black and Latino neighborhoods close to valuable downtown real estate;
- A short slideshow on the Reservoir Wars in the 80s and 90s, in which the real estate industry unsuccessfully tried three times to pass a ballot measure for luxury housing development at the Reservoir. Grassroots organizing won the day! The real estate industry also tried to tear down Balboa High School to build condos—grassroots organizing won the day!