Ballot Beat: Julio Ramos, Ben Kaplan, and Aliya Chisti Outline Their Strategies for a Sustainable City College

By John Schneider

jt.wildfeuer@gmail.com

 

On Nov. 5 San Franciscans will choose four of eight candidates to join Trustees Vick Van Chung, Anita Martinez, and Susan Solomon for four-year terms on the Community College Board.

 

For this issue, The Guardsman interviewed the three remaining candidates, concluding the Ballot Beat series, covering all eight candidates for the Community College Board. Julio Ramos laid out a specific three-part analysis of what he believes should be the college’s priorities, as well as some novel strategies for increasing enrollment. Ben Kaplan described his strategy for rapidly increasing enrollment by improving student outreach and outcomes. Aliya Chisti outlined her priorities for a second term, as well as what she views as some key accomplishments from her first: the elimination of student debt and prioritization of underrepresented equity student populations.

 

Julio Ramos

Julio Ramos is in a unique position, he is the only candidate who has already served on the Community College Board, but is not an incumbent. Describing his consecutive terms from 2000-08 as “seminal experiences,” Ramos recalled acclimating to his role in government and helping to establish facilities at the Mission and Chinatown campuses. 

 

He described the personal impacts that community college access has had on his family. His mother, who immigrated to the United States with his father, obtained a high school diploma and then an associate of arts through a community college program which helped her to secure a job with the county. “That really materially changed my family,” said Ramos, adding “she had a really good job and it was … a concrete benefit that we all received indirectly and directly.” His brother is a City College transfer, currently working on a PhD in linguistics after having completed a BA program at UC Santa Cruz. 

 

In addition to being a former City College Trustee, Julio Ramos, a graduate of Columbia University, has been practicing law for over 20 years, and is the principal and owner of the Law Offices of Julio J. Ramos, focused on consumer class action and land use cases.

 

Broadly speaking, Ramos’ priorities for the college can be broken down into three overlapping areas: engaging stakeholders to explore overlooked avenues for funding, protecting Free City, and addressing the budget.

 

City College, Ramos said, needs a meeting of stakeholders “to really look at student success metrics and really implement them.” He is referring to changes to the state funding formula, known as the Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF), which changed the mechanisms by which funding is allocated by the state. “The college can’t just rely on the state legislature bailing out City College or grandfathering in funding mechanisms.”

 

Breaking down the formula, Ramos said there are two areas where City College could be doing more: the SCFF’s equity and success metrics. The first is measured by the number of students receiving financial aid, the second on degrees, certificates, transfers, and employment attainment. He advocates for a board-led discussion, involving AFT 2121, SIEU 1021, administrators, sponsors, and elected officials on improving the college’s efforts in these areas. 

 

He said that narrowing the college’s focus to addressing the third component of the formula, increasing the state’s base allocation by bringing up enrollment, leaves resources on the table that could help both the college’s funding prospects as well as the students it currently serves. 

 

Without such a discussion among stakeholders, Ramos said, City College faces “an endless cycle of crisis after crisis, going to the voters for parcel tax, going to the voters for assistance, going to the board of supervisors for more help.”

 

One of his other major priorities is preserving Free City, which he described as “a lifeline.” Ramos would like to see Free City become a permanent fixture in the city’s budget, for the city to acknowledge that there is a segment of the population “who want to study and who want to advance and who want to live in San Francisco, want to have a family in San Francisco,” but, given the current state of the city’s cost of living, will only be able to by translating an education into a well-paying job. 

 

In his view, the city ought to support this population, which includes parents, full-time employees, and first generation college students, “as a matter of right or as a matter of duty.”

 

Finally, Ramos said City College needs to adopt a more proactive approach for its budget. Rather than “wishing and hoping and brinkmanship,” Ramos said the college would do better to make a case for itself to the state, backed up by “facts and figures,” as well as exploring the aforementioned success and equity angles.

 

In addition to these central items, Ramos suggested placing a greater emphasis on concurrent enrollment, streamlining financial aid access and increasing enrollment by improving outreach to San Francisco’s high schools, and seeking accreditation for City College to award bachelor of arts degrees for certain fields, particularly in legal and medical fields.

 

He also made a point to highlight the need for the college to create campus housing. “It’s a natural fit,” Ramos said, “given the uniqueness of the real estate market in San Francisco and the really high cost of living … it’s in the interest of the college to provide housing.”

 

In the future, Julio Ramos would like to see City College at the “pinnacle” of AI and biotech teaching, “at the cutting edge of the innovative industries that are here already in Northern California … a feeder for those industries.”

 

Ben Kaplan

Ben Kaplan has been involved in higher education for more than 25 years, and is currently enrolled at City College, pursuing a Diversity and Social Justice Certificate.

 

His book, How to Go to College Almost for Free, he said he wrote with the aim of “helping students pay for college, find scholarships and free money, [and] get more financial aid.” After experiencing himself not knowing how he would pay for college, he put together “two dozen scholarships worth $90,000,” enough to attend Harvard University for free.

 

He published his book in 2001 and over the next decade he said he spoke at over 100 schools each year about how to pay for college. From there Kaplan was hired by universities and organizations to grow enrollment and reach out to students, including UCLA, Texas A&M, Eastern New Mexico University, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. 

 

He decided to run for the Community College Board because he sees his experience in helping students and colleges meet each other’s needs as well suited to City College’s current moment and the challenges it faces.

 

Broadly, Kaplan’s plan for improving the college’s enrollment is two-pronged: personalizing student outreach and developing partnerships that provide employment opportunities.

 

In his view, City College’s outreach is not optimized, colleges that he has seen do well with their marketing “separate different types of students into different tracks that get communications and outreach that are personalized.” He provided examples of tracks wherein a prospective student might receive communications specific to ESL programs, transferring to a four year institution, or receiving vocational training.

 

Commenting on City College’s current strategy of sending out its entire course catalog, Kaplan said, “Not only is that probably not a great expenditure, just in terms of cost, but it’s not the best mailing they could do.”

 

The other prong, Kaplan said, “is that positive student outcomes, and marketing those outcomes is directly related to enrollment growth.”

 

By way of example he offered UCSF, a major employer in San Francisco and the Bay Area overall. This year UCSF acquired Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center. “They need medical practice coordinators, medical assistants, radiology technologists, phlebotomy technicians,” Kaplan said, adding, “if we had a great pipeline … it’s a great way to attract students.”

He recommended applying this logic to every field the college serves, developing a network of pipelines and partnerships to create more robust student employment opportunities.

 

He also advocated for emulating some strategies used by rural colleges to connect students with local industries. Kaplan cited Walla Walla Community College in Washington with its programs designed for entry into the burgeoning wine industry and South Dakota Lake Area Technical College’s accelerated nursing program.

 

The role of the Community College Board in this regard is, Kaplan said, as “a bully pulpit, to shine a light on where there could be more partnerships.”

 

Kaplan described himself as a strong supporter of Free City, and believes that it “should be a model for the entire state of California.” A key aspect of protecting the program from budget restrictions sought by the city, according to the candidate, is a swift increase in enrollment to “show those are not underutilized funds.”

 

Free City is important to Kaplan as an advocate for affordable college, but it also represents greater access to two rising demographics. “The first is students over the age of 40 … and the second is dual enrolled high school students,” Kaplan said. Limiting Free City to transfer students, as has been suggested, would hamper access to City College for “the two fastest growing” demographics. 

 

A 2023 report by National Student Clearinghouse Research Center seems to confirm this, at least where dual enrollment is concerned, with an 8% increase from fall 2022 to spring 2023.

 

Given that City College is “in a fantastic and really livable city, it has some of the largest employers in the world,” with an “inclusive, accepting, creative energy,” Kaplan said, “by the 100 year anniversary, we absolutely could be the best example in California, in the country, of what a community college could be and should be.”

 

Aliya Chisti

One of two incumbent candidates, Aliya Chisti is the first Muslim person running for reelection in San Francisco because she is the first to be elected to any position in the city’s history. 

 

A local San Franciscan with a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and a master’s degree from Colombia, Chisti has worked in New York City on school segregation, Washington D.C. on higher education for Senator Murray, and in North Macedonia as a Fulbright Scholar.

 

Elected in 2020 to the Community College Board, Chisti has prioritized financial accessibility, job training, and stabilizing the college’s budget. If she is reelected, Chisti said she plans to “build on the progress we’ve made, such as improving financial sustainability, increasing

student access to resources, and enhancing support services.”

 

She said she draws on her own experience “growing up in a low-income household and benefiting from accessible education” to drive her to seek support and resources for students.

 

Chisti said she believes City College succeeds as an institution that is open to all, but that it has also “failed to close the opportunity gap,” that the board should be doing more for “historically underrepresented student populations” by increasing its focus on equity.

 

Citing her work as Chair of Student Success and Policy, Chisti pointed to resolutions “on student housing, stronger support for student parents, [and] increasing financial support for

wrap around programs that support equity populations,” but noted that there was more to be done.

 

As former Senior Analyst for the Free City College Program, Chisti said she supports Free City, that it is “a part of San Francisco’s social fabric.” However, she would like to see grant amounts increased with equity student populations in mind and increased access for “undocumented students and students experiencing housing insecurity.” She would also like to see changes made to the current system which charges students fees for dropping classes after the deadline.

 

In terms of governing policies, specifically those that must be addressed by March 2025 in response to a warning issued by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC), Chisti said she “advocated for the creation of an ad hoc policy committee” to make improvements and to seek outside evaluation and recommendation on how best to proceed.

 

As part of addressing the ACCJC concerns, City College will have to include in its March Follow-Up Report its plans for long-range fiscal sustainability, that is, its long-term budget considerations. Chisti said this cannot be accomplished by the board alone, that it will need to “collaborate with student leaders, labor partners, and staff to find solutions for the best path forward,” acting as a “cohesive unit” to ably advocate for initiatives like Free City.

 

In a second term, Chisti said she would “continue to eliminate student debt for students,” in part by addressing many who have “holds” as a result of unpaid fees, prioritizing advocacy for equity populations and regulating the cost of attendance.

 

“City College is the People’s College,” Chisti said, “one of the few community colleges that embodies the true purpose of education.” The college, she said, serves “students who wish to take a class for personal enrichment or to transfer to a 4-year, or who wish to learn a skill in the trades.” Institutions like City College, she concluded, “expand minds, build social networks, and

provide a large public benefit that is often hard to capture in dollar-for-dollar approaches.”

 

Final Weeks

 

In less than a month, voters will cast their ballots for Community College Board representatives, and a host of other important local and federal positions and propositions. Turnout for the 2020 election was at a record high, according to the United States Census Bureau, suggesting civic participation is on an upward trajectory. Nov. 5, as with every local and national election, offers qualified voters an opportunity to engage in the nearly 250 year experiment of American democracy. 

 

The candidates, each of which took the time to speak with The Guardsman on their platforms and qualifications, are as follows: Aliya Chisti, Ruth Ferguson, Ben Kaplan, Leanna Louie, Heather McCarty, Julio Ramos, Alan Wong, and Luis Zamora.

 

San Franciscans have a unique opportunity to weigh in on the direction of City College through the direct election of its governing body the Community College Board. With four seats in play, more than half of the board, the priorities of voters could have a greater impact on the future of City College, its Free City program and budgetary goals, and the trajectory of public higher education in San Francisco.