You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Accreditors have placed the City College of San Francisco on "enhanced monitoring" due to its finances.
The college has for years been plagued with financial issues and threats to its accreditation status. In 2012, the college got less than a year from accreditors to fix its problems. Five years later, the college finally won a seven-year accreditation from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.
It's once again at risk.
ACCJC analyzed the college's 2020 fiscal report and found several issues, according to a letter from the accreditor published on the college's website, which include:
- Deficits averaging $13.3 million over three years
- Cash reduced from $53 million to $575,000 over three years
- A decrease in the net operating revenue ratio averaging 8.3 percent over three years
- Salaries making up 92.3 percent of the total expenditures in the 2018-2019 fiscal year
- Multiple leadership turnovers
City College has until December to provide plans to ACCJC for how it will address these issues. If the college fails to do so, it could receive an "adverse action" from the commission.
In a letter to the community, Rajen Vurdien, interim chancellor of City College, emphasized that enhanced monitoring is not a sanction.
"The District is confident it can address the financial issues outlined in this letter," Vurdien wrote. The college has created several budget scenarios that are being reviewed, he said.
"In the meantime, I want to reassure our students, faculty and employees that our academic programs are as solid as ever with our dedicated faculty and staff having the best interests of our students at heart. We will continue to stay focused on our mission to educate students and ask that you do the same," he said. "I will continue to hold my open forums and provide information when it becomes available. There are some difficult decisions before us, and this letter is a reminder of what is truly at stake."
These difficulties are exacerbated by the pandemic. The college experienced a 24 percent drop in enrollment this past spring compared to the spring of 2019, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The college also has five vacant leadership positions.
