By Peter Schurmann, New America Media
Antonino Musco never planned on settling in San Francisco. The native of Sicily, who studies digital media at City College of San Francisco, says he just “stumbled into the city.”
Now, with the college facing possible closure, he and the other 1,100 or so international students there may have to find an alternative school. Or leave the country.
“Rumors among the students range from the apocalyptic and above,” says Musco, who is now in his third year at CCSF. “ ‘The school is gonna close, we’re gonna lose accreditation, all those years of study’ . . . those are the rumors you hear.”
Friday marks the “show cause” deadline for the school to demonstrate to the California Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) that it has addressed some 14 outstanding deficiencies first raised in a commission report in July. Failing that, the college could lose its accreditation, forcing it to close its doors.
Still, despite the potential calamity, faculty and administrators remain confident the school — one of the largest community colleges in the country with an enrollment of some 90,000 students — will avoid the worst.
“Everyone at the college is working very, very hard to maintain our accreditation,” says Dr. Minh Hoa Ta, dean of CCSF’s Chinatown/North Beach campus and a faculty member with the school’s International Education and ESL departments.
Read the complete story at New America Media.