At City College of San Francisco, a shortage of introductory English classes has led to a waiting list of more than 200 students, some of whom need the course to complete the program and receive a degree. The university's faculty and staff union is urging campus leaders to add more course sections and hire more instructors, but administrators are concerned the university cannot afford new hires.
The American Federation of Teachers 2121 blamed course section shortages for mass layoffs in 2022, including the layoffs of six full-time English faculty and about 20 part-time English instructors. Sierra College's new role argued that the move was necessary for the college's long-term financial health, but the decision outraged faculty and sparked protests. (Several current trustees, elected last year and supported by the union, have campaigned to rehire laid-off faculty.)
The English department, with permission from administrators last fall, rehired two professors part-time as the waiting list for English 1A, an introductory English course, grew to at least 200 students. But English professors say the problem hasn't gone away.
Lizzie Brock, an English faculty member at the college since 2007, said there were 287 students on the waitlist for the course this spring. Ultimately, 82 students were removed from the waitlist, but this still left 205 students unable to take courses this semester. She was worried because City College requires basic English as a prerequisite for many of its programs, including all humanities, nursing, radiology, and fire science degree programs. You must complete the course to transfer to a four-year university.
Brock isn't just concerned about “bottlenecks” – he's also concerned about building skills that students would otherwise lose if they don't take courses early in college. The course serves as an introduction to essay writing, library research, academic reading, study skills and time management, which can be especially helpful for adult learners returning to college, she said.
“It’s like an English training camp,” she said. “And they need it. It’s really important to transition to or return to university and learn everything about customs, language and academic performance.”
Vincent Lopes, a computer networking and cybersecurity major at City College, said taking English 1A gave him an academic foundation. He was returning to college after serving in the Coast Guard. When he was taken off the waiting list for an introductory English course this spring, he was both scared and excited.
Both of his parents attended City College and have warm memories of the course, but “I was definitely nervous because I was on a break from my education at the time,” he said. He found the course to be a great way to “learn about school life again,” teaching him how to turn his ideas into research papers and how to access campus tutoring services.
“I don’t think I would have known anything if that wasn’t in the class,” he said.
According to the university's class registration platform, at least 26 of the 52 English 1A course sections offered for the upcoming fall semester are already full, with more courses expected to fill in the coming months as more students enroll as the semester approaches. I'm sure. semester. (In contrast, a few years ago, in fall 2021, there were 78 English 1A courses offered.)
Board Chairman Alan Wong agrees that the college should prioritize offering more of the most in-demand courses, including English 1A, but said it makes more financial sense to shift the college's resources to classes with the highest enrollment. I believe it. Recruiting additional faculty.
He said City College has a balanced budget and reserves after years of financial difficulties and deficit spending, but its recovery remains weak. He hopes to maintain the college's nascent financial health through “staff attrition” and by refusing to fill positions or take on vacant roles as some faculty and other staff retire.
The debate over introductory English reflects a broader, longer-term debate in colleges and universities about whether to increase or scale back enrollment as student numbers decline over time. Wong said the college's enrollment increased by about 10 percent this academic year, meaning it had 1,000 more full-time students. But this increase comes after more than a decade of declining enrollment, with a particularly sharp decline during the pandemic. The number of students in credit programs decreased from 41,142 in the 2018-19 school year to 26,584 in the 2022-23 school year, according to university data.
“There are people who want to grow the institution and make sure they take more classes and get enrolled,” Wong said. “To me, I think that may be a riskier approach.” This is because a university may expend resources on expansion and enrollment growth may not follow. Others want to cut some academic programs, but past cuts to staffing and low-enrollment classes “have been very disruptive to our institution, and the fallout from that still lingers.”
To make matters worse, California community colleges are transitioning to a new state funding formula based on enrollment and various student success indicators. To ease the transition, states have now allowed some colleges to utilize “hold harmless” provisions and continue to receive or receive funding at the same level as the previous formula without a cost-of-living adjustment. Wong said the new formula could lead to more profits. He predicts that if City College can increase enrollment by 8% per year over the next three years, it will be able to secure more funding under the new formula and have additional incentives to increase enrollment and offer high-demand classes.
Brock is a man of the mentality that if you build it, they will come.
“The university, like many universities, has shrunk significantly over the past 20 years.” “We have made it worse with our cuts,” she said. “…if you’re trying to build a restaurant business, don’t send your customers away.”
Rick Baum, a longtime adjunct professor of political science at the university, said Introductory English is not the only class that has had fewer sections offered over the years. The same goes for his English as a Second Language course, a non-credit course he considers to provide a valuable entryway into a degree program. He also heard that nursing students were having trouble taking the chemistry courses they needed to complete their degrees. He added that a search of the university's class registration platform showed it was offering about 50 fewer classes this year than last year.
He worries that students will become discouraged by long waiting lists and are likely to go elsewhere or give up on college altogether.
He noted that the university's student body is disproportionately made up of people of color and low-income people.
“…by denying students educational opportunities, we are reinforcing structural classism and structural racism in our society, and we are doing this by students skipping classes,” he said.
Davis Jenkins, a senior fellow at the Community College Research Center, said it's not uncommon for community colleges to not offer enough courses for students when they need them.
If seats aren't filled, classes are suspended, and “if you cancel a section… it's ruined for everyone, especially the students,” he said. He believes not enough attention is being paid to scheduling and said more community college academic advisors should help students design customized academic plans that specifically outline which classes to take and when. Advisors and deans must then work together to offer these classes, he said.
“The question is, ‘What courses do our students need to complete the program? When should we offer those courses?’” Jenkins said. “And this answers the question, ‘What faculty do we need and in what ways?’”
He said providing the right mix could help boost much-needed enrollment at City College, which has seen enrollment plummet 65 percent in the past 15 years.
“I’m worried about them,” he said. “They need to focus on this.”
Meanwhile, infighting between the board and the outgoing prime minister over spending and other related issues has attracted negative attention. The board passed a resolution last summer to rehire fired faculty. The College's accrediting body, the Community and Junior College Accreditation Commission, attacked the College with a warning earlier this year, raising concerns about whether the Board of Regents is considering “long-term financial impacts when making financial decisions.” “Subject to policy and bylaws,” it allows the superintendent to administer board policies “without board interference.”
This is not the first time an accrediting body has come into conflict with a university, with the institution facing accreditation threats in 2012 due to financial problems.
Betsy Espinoza, who took English 1A last semester, hopes City College administrators find a way to offer more introductory English courses. She noted that some English 1A classes are provided with additional support, including an assigned teacher. She wanted extra help, so after she got off the waitlist, she took one of those classes.
“It was like therapy,” she said. “I felt a lot of support in that class. I think stopping this class would be setting future students up for failure.”