San Francisco City College Cantonese Program Suffers Major Setback
Previously Approved Cantonese Program is Withdrawn
“This tone-deaf decision is a disappointment to the Chinese community”
June 20, 2023 (San Francisco) – On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, City College Board President Alan Wong decried the College’s retraction of a 16 unit Cantonese Certificate of Achievement (CAch) program that had been previously approved by the Board of Trustees. The 16 unit Cantonese certificate had already undertaken the required College processes. It had been recommended by the College’s Curriculum Committee and then adopted by the Board of Trustees. It was ready to be submitted to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) for final review before it was unceremoniously and bureaucratically withdrawn.
The withdrawal of the 16 unit Cantonese certificate is significant because a certificate program with at least 16 units can meet state criteria and metrics for additional state funding. In 2021, City College administrators wanted to cut the popular and fully enrolled Cantonese classes because City College’s Cantonese classes did not have any certificate program or classes eligible for additional state funding while other classes did. The classes are important to the community because it is one of the few remaining programs that teach Cantonese and provide the community with bilingual Cantonese speakers for public safety, healthcare, and social services.
“We need to rescue the Cantonese program to stop Asian hate and make sure the Chinese community has access to bilingual services. We need to have firefighters, police officers, and social workers that are bilingual,” said Wong, whose parents are both Cantonese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong. “Our Chinese community celebrated City College’s approval of the Cantonese program. We finally had recognition that the Chinese community and Cantonese language matters. To suddenly pull the rug from under our feet after it had been approved is unjust and undemocratic. This tone-deaf decision is a disappointment to the Chinese community.”
In January 2022, after extensive public outcry from a coalition of over 40 community organizations, the City College Board of Trustees passed a policy authored by Wong to protect the Cantonese classes and set City College on the path to creating the two new Cantonese certificates. Subsequently, after certificates were developed, the College’s Curriculum Committee recommended a 9 unit Conversational Cantonese Certificate on September 28, 2022 and the Committee also recommended the 16 unit Chinese Cantonese Certificate on October 12, 2022. On November 10, 2022, the City College Board of Trustees ratified courses and programs recommended by the Curriculum Committee (Item 13.B. 173), including the two Cantonese certificates.
However, on November 23, 2022, the City College Curriculum Committee retracted its support for the 16 unit Cantonese Certificate. The November 23 meeting minutes stated, “One of the department’s proposed Cantonese certificates recently approved with stipulations will not be moving forward at this time. While the 9-unit Conversational Cantonese CAch is being forwarded for CCCCO approval, the larger Chinese (Cantonese) CAch has been reverted back to draft status until the department has the resources to develop more Cantonese offerings, including a grammar course.” Because the 16 unit Cantonese certificate was pulled from CurricuNet, a software application designed to automate and enhance the development and approval of curriculum in community colleges, it was no longer possible for the college to move forward with the certificate to the CCCCO for final and timely approval.
During public comment at the March 23, 2023 Board of Trustees meeting the World Languages and Cultures Department Chair Diana Garcia-Denson stated at the 2:55:00 mark, “There is no 16 unit Cantonese Certificate of Achievement and it will not be in the 2023 catalog. This certificate has not been finalized by our department and remains in the draft stage in curriculum. The current draft does not meet department standards because we don’t have the courses nor the resources to support a 16-unit certificate in Cantonese.”
“There was a change of heart by some after the certificate had already been approved and met all the requirements,” said Wong. “It’s not right that the certificate was taken away from the community because suddenly it is decided that the program needs another class. It was ready to go. I will push City College to acknowledge and assure the community that the 16 unit Cantonese certificate is incoming and will be included in our future academic catalogs.”
Wong, through his role as Board President, has included an action item on the July 22, 2023 Board of Trustees agenda to approve a notation in the upcoming college academic catalog, which will indicate that the 16 unit Cantonese certificate is incoming.
In San Francisco, Cantonese is the most commonly spoken language by the Chinese population. According to the City’s 2021 Language Access Compliance Summary Report, there were 659,184 Limited English Proficient client interactions across all City Departments and of those 287,474 (43.6%) were in Cantonese. San Francisco Police Department data indicates that in 2020 there were a total of 9,380 interpretation services provided, consisting of 3,289 in-person and 6,091 Language Line Insight smartphone app interpretation services. Cantonese is also the second most requested translation for incoming 911 domestic violence calls. Language was the most common barrier to help-seeking for Asian callers to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
