City College of San Francisco Issues Formal Public Apology to Community for Inappropriate Withdrawal of Cantonese Program
July 17, 2023 (San Francisco) – City College of San Francisco issued a formal public apology to the community for harm caused by an improperly withdrawn 16-unit Cantonese Certificate of Achievement (CAch) program. The 16-unit Cantonese certificate was poised to be offered by City College in the 2023-2024 academic year until it was inappropriately retracted. City College also reaffirmed its commitment to rectifying harm to the community and including the 16-unit Cantonese Certificate of Achievement in the 2024-2025 academic year college catalog.
The public apology from City College stated, “At the June 22, 2023, regular meeting of the governing board, the district’s legal counsel stated that the 16-unit Cantonese certificate was improperly withdrawn after governing board approval. The College and the Board would like to apologize to our community for any harm, confusion, or frustration this process may have caused. As we move forward into the upcoming academic year, the College remains committed to developing the needed curriculum and obtaining the proper state approvals to offer a high-quality 16-unit credit Cantonese certificate starting in the 2024-25 academic year.”
“We need this certificate so that we can train the next generation of bilingual public safety, health, and social workers that can serve the Chinese community,” said City College Board President Alan Wong. “Students and the community celebrated this Cantonese certificate after it was approved by City College because they finally felt included. The community was shocked and felt betrayed when they heard that the certificate was abruptly pulled. The inappropriate retraction of the Cantonese certificate was unjust and undemocratic. It brought major discredit upon City College and undermined the community’s trust in our institution. City College has a lot of healing to do with the Chinese community and this formal apology is the first step in mending relations.”
Since Fall 2019, all Cantonese classes at City College have been full. Many people enroll in the popular Cantonese classes in order to gain the bilingual skills to better serve the City’s large Chinese community, connect with their heritage, and improve communication with family members and seniors. Despite the classes being highly enrolled, in 2021 City College administrators proposed to cut the Cantonese classes because the classes were not in any certificate program that meets the state criteria for state funding.
After extensive community outcry about the Cantonese class cuts, City College adopted a policy in January 2022 by Wong that set City College on the path to creating a certificate program with at least 16-units meeting state criteria.
The process for approving a certificate includes: a recommendation from the Curriculum Committee, then approval by the Board of Trustees and subsequent approval from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO). In the case of the 16-unit Cantonese certificate, after Wong’s policy passed, the College’s Curriculum Committee recommended the 16-unit Chinese Cantonese Certificate on October 12, 2022. Then 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 16-unit Cantonese certificate.
On November 23, 2022, the Curriculum Committee abruptly retracted its support for the 16-unit Cantonese Certificate. The Curriculum Committee meeting minutes stated that “One of the department’s proposed Cantonese certificates recently approved with stipulations will not be moving forward at this time. … 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.”
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.”
The proposed 16-unit Cantonese certificate that was retracted would not have required new courses or resources. It threaded together existing class offerings to comprise a certificate. However, the Curriculum Committee retracted the 16-unit Cantonese certificate, stating that they wanted a new grammar and other courses which would require more funding and resources for the World Languages and Culture Department.
“The Cantonese certificate did not require or ask for any additional resources or classes,” said Wong. “It strung together existing classes already offered by City College to comprise a certificate. Withdrawing the certificate after the program had already been ratified and celebrated by the community to discuss adding a new course or getting more funding baffles me. The best option would have been to have the certificate proceed and suggest amendments in the next academic year.”
At the June 22 Board of Trustees meeting at the 4:44:23 mark, City College’s legal counsel stated that the Curriculum Committee’s retraction of the certificate already approved by the Curriculum Committee and Board of Trustees was inappropriate, “The Curriculum Committee after the Board approves it does not really have that kind of role in order to overturn the Board’s vote. Once it’s presented by the Curriculum Committee and then approved by the Board, it then must be approved by the state chancellor’s office before it can be offered as an educational program. If the Curriculum Committee wanted to present a change to the Board, you know, there are ways to do that… Those things did not happen in this instance. The curriculum committee minutes do reflect an intent to withdraw it back to draft status but the Board had already approved it at that point.”
Unfortunately, even though it was determined that the Curriculum Committee had overstepped its authority and the 16-unit certificate should have moved forward in the next step of the approval process to the CCCCO, it was too late to move ahead with the certificate in the 2023-2024 academic year because records of the certificate had been deleted from the college curriculum management software after the certificate was retracted.
“San Francisco is the Cantonese capital of America. To suddenly pull away the rug from under the community’s feet after it had been approved just because some folks had a change of heart is a huge disappointment to the Chinese community. Not only was it improper, it was tone deaf and demonstrates a need for cultural competency,” said Wong. “This isn’t just about cultural or language preservation. It’s about the practical needs of the City’s large immigrant and senior Cantonese community to have equal access to healthcare, public safety, and social services. I am committed to ensuring that City College rectifies its past wrongs, rebuilds trust with our community, and moves forward with a Cantonese certificate in 2024-2025.”
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.
