Students Begin Looking Elsewhere to Access Required Courses
Another semester, another long list of students barred from continuing their education

By John R. Adkins
jradproduction@gmail.com
More than 40 City College students crowded around the door of room 206 in the Science Hall last Tuesday. All of them were desperate for one thing: a spot in Chemistry 32.
Introduction to Medical Chemistry, or Chem 32, is a prerequisite for most science-related degree programs, including Biology and Registered Nursing. Because of this, Chem 32 often receives the moniker of “gateway course.”
“In 2022 I got my EMT certificate, and now I’m working towards my nursing degree,” said Ariel Parrish. “This course is a prerequisite to my prerequisites, and I have tried multiple times before to get in.” Parrish was one of the many students who had turned out in person Tuesday morning in an effort to steal a spot in Chem 32.
Tuesday, Jan. 14, was the first meeting of Chem 32 for the spring semester. The course met once at 8:40 a.m. and again at 12:30 p.m. Both sections were a spectacle of more than 20 unregistered students who were hoping to squeeze their way into the classroom and continue their education.
“I knew I had to come early because last year there was a whole line of people waiting to get in, and Dr. Hurt starts dropping kids on the first day if they don’t show up,” said nursing student Emily González.
At around 8:30 a.m., Dr. Mai Hurt arrived in the doorway to room 206. Standing in her white lab coat between students and the perennial roadblock to City College science degrees, Hurt began to recite the same procedures she had shouted out to the science halls the previous semester.
Students who were either on the waitlist or had shown up in person were instructed to wait outside. Meanwhile, Hurt reconciled her roster with those who were present to begin dropping students who were not. Students on the waitlist were given priority and individually ranked based on registration date.
“I’m working a lot of overtime to manage all this,” Hurt said.

Former Department Chair Christina Stuart, who teaches Chem 40, Introduction to Chemical Principles, is dealing with her own inundation of desperate students. Stuart reported a 44-person waitlist for her 84-person lecture hall.
“I don’t know that I fully understand the logic behind not hiring more professors. There must be a desire to not spend more on salaries, but I also don’t know how else you grow enrollment if you don’t hire instructors where they’re needed,” Stuart said.
Erin Palmer, co-chair of Diablo Valley College’s Chemistry department, confirmed to the Guardsman that the college had recently approved two full-time faculty hires to address a similar demand.
“Clearly… we need more instructors,” Hurt said to the hallway of solemn students. She had already taken 28 students into the laboratory and announced that she would take four more on a “contingent basis” for the next two weeks. Contingent students would have to participate in experiments and complete the required coursework in the hopes of someone else dropping the course. The maximum recommended class size for a laboratory is 24 students, as stated by the American Chemistry Society.

Ten minutes after the class was scheduled to begin, a student ran through the crowd to Dr. Hurt, her glasses fogged and breathless. The student, later identified as pharmacy major Thi Nguyen, explained that her bus had been delayed but that she was already registered. But Nguyen was too late; her position in the class had already been given up.
Hurt suggested that students attend every lab to improve their chances of getting in. “I’m sorry…” Hurt said to the crowd as she broke from her usual spiel. “…Our school doesn’t have enough spots for you. Just keep trying and good luck.”
The door slammed shut behind her and echoed across the hall of despondent would-be science majors.
Katherine Foster, a diagnostic medical imaging major, stated she would try Skyline College instead. “This is the second semester in a row I set an alarm on my phone for my registration time. As soon as I started clicking to sign up, it was already too late,” Foster said.
In the fall semester alone, City College’s Chemistry department had around 200 students who could not enroll in Chem 32.
“I just need this class to actually get into my program, and it’s taking longer than I thought,” Foster said.
However, Chemistry is not the only department impacted by the unmet demand for prerequisite courses. English 1A – a requirement for all degree programs – saw approximately 270 students denied access in the fall and faced a similar bottleneck again this spring.
Last semester’s access crisis resulted in an outpouring of student and faculty demands at the October Board meeting. In response, the college approved a part-time, temporary hire for Chemistry before the beginning of the spring semester. Faculty within the department agreed that these types of hires are unsuccessful due to the lower caliber of educators they attract. Those who are sufficient for the role quickly leave for more secure job offers elsewhere.
The part-time hire opened just one more section for Chem 32, adding 28 more seats, all of which were filled within an hour of the class being posted. Dr. Hurt personally counted 136 remaining students who had contacted her requesting access to her sections of Chem 32. This number does not include those who went to Dr. Fong, Dr. Wong, and Dr. Kayitare to try to add the course as well.
“We need tenure-tracked quality educators. We’ve had good people like Ben, but of course he found another job at a pharmaceutical company,” Dr. Hurt said of Benjamin Guthrie, who previously taught Chem 32 as an emergency part-time hire.
In addition, the chemistry department reported that it had just lost its most recent part-time hire due to personal matters. Thus, faculty members will have to overload their teaching schedules to avoid canceling the course and further reducing the number of spots available for Chem 32.
When Chemistry Department Chair Brian Wong left his office between classes on Tuesday, he had to field as many as 10 students who approached him in the hallway within the span of a couple of minutes. All asked the same question: “How do I get onto the waitlist for my chemistry course?”
“Our situation is very difficult,” Wong said. “We will have another retirement at the end of the semester. When that happens, we will have lost six full-timers due to retirement over the last seven years and none of them have been replaced.” Wong also cited the decline in enrollment over the last seven years but stated, “We still need at least one full-time hire. I’d love to have two, but that’s clearly just not going to happen.”
One full-time instructor would teach three class sections, which is the equivalent of 84 more available spots for Chem 32.
Stuart explained that a teacher’s retirement should not be an opportunity to reduce the cost of faculty expenses but rather a chance to make a new hire without increasing the allocated budget for salaries.
“That’s not a budget argument anymore because that money was already there. Besides, if you hire someone new, wouldn’t they be at a lower pay grade than someone who is retiring anyway?” Stuart asked.
Representatives from the teacher’s union, AFT 2121, were present at 8:40 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to document the student access crisis and help distribute a petition started by nursing student MJ Reyes. Their intent was to document students’ stories and help pressure the administration to continue hiring more faculty in the Chemistry department.

Department Chair Wong stopped one of the AFT staff organizers in the hall just before 12:30 p.m. to ask that no events be organized that would disturb any of the classes. Evidently, word had traveled fast about the union’s intended presence and City College police department officers positioned themselves at the end of the hallway.
Chief Mario Vasquez confirmed their department had been notified of a potential protest. Officers stated that they were merely conducting their usual business: ensuring the campus community’s safety.
Board of Trustees member Louis Zamora also attended to witness the in-person demand and speak to students.
“It’s a juggling act between balancing CCSF’s budget and ensuring there’s enough faculty to teach the students,” said Zamora. “Frankly, until I see the data, I don’t know exactly what direction we need to take, but it’s clearly visible that we have more students than we have availability.”
Zamora explained that hiring a faculty member involves one-time fees, and whether the hire is full-time or part-time, the college incurs an ongoing cost. However, Zamora also cited the chancellor’s set-aside of around a million dollars in this year’s budget.
“This issue is concerning to me personally so it’s going to be top of mind as we try and figure out how we are going to use those emergency one-time funds,” Zamora said.
Dr. Hurt expressed how sad it was to open her inbox to so many emails sharing personal stories and pleading for some way into Chem 32.
“These students are just desperate, you shouldn’t have to wait two years just to take one class,” Hurt said.