Faculty divided on draft equity resolution

By Liska Koenig
The Guardsman

A draft resolution by the City College Board of Trustees has some faculty up in arms because they feel the board is interfering with their responsibilities.

Based on data from the Student Equity Report and “Poppy Copy,” a study that evaluates basic skills as a foundation for students’ success at California community colleges, the  draft resolution calls for major changes to the curriculum.

The draft resolution, which was presented to the board on Feb. 25, aims to bridge the student achievement gap and prepare students to more efficiently transfer to four-year colleges.

Students who identify as African-American, Native American, Filipino, Latino or Pacific Islander are 19 to 21 percent less likely to complete two- or four-year degrees than their white and Asian counterparts, according to the 2009 City College Student Achievement Gap and Social Equity Report.

“The role of the English and math curriculum is very important in how we understand the problem facing different groups at the college,” Trustee Steve Ngo said. “We need to intensify our basic efforts to get students college-ready and if we can’t do that, then we aren’t doing our job.”

A student entering at the lowest possible level may need to take six English classes and four math classes to finally take transferable math and English courses.

Ngo said these classes will have to be restructured so students don’t have to slowly work their way up in 3-unit increments. To speed up the process, the board is debating turning them into 11- or 12-unit classes.

Under the draft resolution students would have the option to take these subjects as pass/no pass. The board also wants to give students better access to English and math classes and improve professional development training programs to teach basic skills.

“Fact is, if students can get through these classes during their first year of college, the rate at which they complete college increases,” Ngo said.

“Most people take longer than two semesters to complete their math requirements, but just by reducing the number of steps you are making it more likely for students to succeed,” said Hal Huntsman, math instructor and president of the Academic Senate.

Darlene Alioto, chair of the social sciences department, disagreed.

“One needs to remember that students are coming to us from the Unified School District very unprepared. To expect some of them to reach college level within two semesters is fantasy,” she wrote in an e-mail to the Board of Trustees on March 15.

“I feel the draft resolution before the Board of Trustees amounts to political grandstanding,” math department Chair Dennis Piontkowski wrote in an e-mail to the Department Chairs Council. “It is not in the best interest of our students. We need to fight this flagrant abuse of power.”

Among the 114 California community colleges, City College has one of the longest basic education sequences. Other community colleges, like Santa Rosa or De Anza, have already changed their curriculum to cater to student’s needs, Ngo said.

“With this long sequence of English and math classes, you are not producing confident happy people who are ready to enter a career,” broadcast major Jason Grohman said. “Instead people drop out because they feel like failures. In the end the school is making money from it,”

Grohman originally placed into basic English and math classes. After six years at City College, he is still not ready to transfer because he needs to pass English 1B.

The current placement test system at the school also poses a significant problem for students’ progress, Ngo and Huntsman said.

“If the board passes the resolution, students will be allowed to retake the test twice any time during a semester,” Huntsman added. “With the current system, they need to wait until the next semester to be tested again, and there is no law, no good reason to make them wait until they can take it again.”

By petition of 100 Academic Senate members, an emergency meeting was held on March 23.

In an e-mail to Chancellor Don Griffin, board members Steve Ngo and Chris Jackson stated that none of the present parties objected to the draft resolution at the time it was presented to the board.

“I asked them to say openly if they would agree that we need to do that, and all of them said yes,” Ngo said.