CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCSICO –
Accreditation Show Cause Report
1. Full Standard Number:
Standard II.B.3.a
(II.B.3.a)
2. Full Standard Text:
STANDARD II.B.3.a
The institution assures equitable access to all of its students by providing appropriate,
comprehensive, and reliable services to students regardless of service location or delivery
method.
3. Descriptive Summary: A primarily descriptive overview of what the institution does in relation to
each of the Standards.
City College of San Francisco continues to provide an array of basic and specialized student
services on the ocean campus and to a lesser degree at the centers. See appendix 1 for list of
basic and specialized services offered at the ocean campus and centers. While there is some
duplication, the services address the matriculation process, specialized retention programs for
various ethnic student groups on campus, both in person an online admission and registration
for credit students and in person for noncredit students (for specific locations, see appendix 2.
The College has faced challenges in providing student services equitably regardless of
location and delivery method given that the communities served by the CCSF educational
centers are so diverse. Mindful of not duplicating services the college is evaluating the
provision of services within the fiscal realities.
Nevertheless, special efforts are made to assist high school African-American and Latino
students enroll through the bridge to success program. Now in its third year, the Bridge to
Success program has been the catalyst for several pilot projects such as changes in
registration priority for SFSUD seniors, more opportunities for on-site placement testing, and
changes in math and English curriculum. Other efforts are the Gateway to College, Guardian
Scholars, as well as EOPS and DSP&S. Gateway to College assists students who have
dropped out of high school and need to earn their GED. Students take courses that help earn
credit towards their high school diploma and a college degree or certificate at the same time.
The Guardian Scholars Program is committed to helping students exiting the foster care
system by providing comprehensive support program to complete a GED, achieve an A.A.
degree, complete a certificate program or transfer to a four year institution. The college also
has a long standing agreement with SFUSD to offer career and technical education (CTE) dual
enrollment courses to students in pathways and academies at their high schools. (See
Appendix 3)
Additionally, the college provides an array of financial aid services, which includes grants,
scholarships, loans and college work-study funds. While federal financial aid programs focus
primarily on credit programs, as resources allow some financial aid services are provided at
the Centers by financial aid counselors and staff for qualified noncredit certificate programs.
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The Student Activities Office provides support to seven active student councils at the Ocean
campus and educational centers. More, there are 8 student resource centers ranging from
family resources to GLBTQ resources to the VIDA center supporting immigrant students. The
College also has a nationally recognized Veterans Resource Center.
Notable progress has been made in assessing student learning outcomes in student services
for services provided at the Ocean campus as well as services provided at the educational
centers via the center deans. Student services is working on including SLO assessment
highlights on the college’s webpage with nearly 95% maintaining current information on the
web.
3. Self Evaluation: Based on the descriptive summary, the institution should analyze and systematically
evaluate its performance against the Eligibility Requirements, Accreditation Standards, Commission
policies and its institutional mission. This analysis should result in actionable conclusions about
institutional effectiveness and educational quality and decisions for improvement. The basic
questions to explore are whether or not, and to what degree, institutional evidence demonstrates
that the institution meets the Standards and how the institution has reached this conclusion. The
Commission expects current and sustained compliance with the Standards, focusing on
accomplishments and outcomes that have been achieved and not just structures or processes used.
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The College conducted an evaluation of services through a series of focus groups comprised of
members of the student service counseling instructional and classified staff plus students at the
main campus and the centers.
These focus groups were supervised by administrators in the student development area.
The purpose of the focus groups was to identify basic services needed at the centers and on the
main campus. Additionally, they were to provide input on a revised student development
organizational chart.
Key items emerging from the focus group comments are the need for better interdepartmental an
inter-campus/center communication, more cross-training of both faculty and classified staff,
particularly at the centers and in the counseling department.
Staff also suggested that one stop delivery service centers and be utilized at the centers to
maximize staff and improve student service delivery.
There were many comments from the focus groups on the poor customer service provided to
students and many offices on the Ocean Campus and in the Centers.
Services do not always deliver accurate information and timely follow-through of student request.
The delivery of service to students requiring the full matriculation service is lower than the head
count data and will need a greater involvement of all key services to ensure that students are
appropriately prepared for entry into the college and instructional activity
The Banner system allows students to enroll in classes and provides many other helpful services.
While Banner functionally allows students to pay for fees when registering for classes, a student is
not required to pay fees in that transaction which then creates payment delays. Non-payment of
student fees results in a hold on registration for the next term. This has created a growing accrual
of student debt owed to the college as the enrollment fee rate has increased.
The available counseling services for distance learners are currently quite limited. Inquiries by email are initiated by a link on the CCSF Distance Education website and are then triaged to the
appropriate unit by trained student ambassadors. The Learning Assistance department offers a
special class dedicated to assist on-line students by preparing them for the unique demands of on3/17/2016
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line classes by enhancing their study skills, test-taking techniques, and participation in on-line
forums.
Although Steps-to-Credit activities are held at some Centers, the district does not have a
consistent method to insure non-credit Adult Education students receive an educational plan and
inquiry of interest to matriculate to credit programs. The development of student educational plans
will be required with the implementation of SB1456 and other Student Success Task Force
recommendations.
3. Actionable Improvement Plans: Continuous quality improvement is a hallmark of institutional
effectiveness. As an institution evaluates its programs and services with reference to each Standard, it
identifies areas in need of change. The Commission expects the institution to identify goals related to the
areas that require change and decide on the action required to meet these goals. The institution should
include the required actions in improvement plans. It may not be possible for the institution to have
improvement plans fully developed at the time of submission of the Institutional Self Evaluation Report. The
Commission expects these actionable improvement plans to be integrated into the institution’s continuous
evaluation and planning processes.
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The College would like to improve the delivery of services efficiently and in a timely manner in
order to assure student access. This will be accomplished by a reorganization of student services
in order to combine like services, minimize duplication and improve student delivery of service.
Several ideas were also provided in regards to the reorganization, which was presented to the
board of trustee at the December 13, 2012 meeting. (See Appendix 4)
 The College would like to improve the use of technology in the delivery of services to compensate
for decrease in staffing.
 The college would like to ensure that students pay fees in a timely manner so as to allow access to
classroom seats to all officially enrolled students. This will be accomplished by the development of
a program to require payment of student fees at point of registration while still allowing special
groups to defer fees or utilize a payment plan. (See timeline in Appendix 5)
 College would like to improve its customer service and the manner in which addresses service
delivery to students. This will be accomplished by trainings in customer service for all student
service staff, improved inner Department communication through joint meetings and program
presentations at flex days and professional development opportunities for all staff in student
services.
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The challenge of course registration for high school students, which is still paper-based, requires
extensive labor on the part of the dual enrollment staff as well as staff at Admissions and Records.
In addition, dual enrolled students are the last to register into a class, which means that they are
not assured of a seat and don’t know until the day of class if they are enrolled. There are better
models for this process and the college would benefit from exploring this and resolving the
cumbersome process that is now in place.
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The dual enrollment program is maintaining and reviewing data as to how SFUSD students do
once they matriculate to City College. In spite of summer bridge programs, dual enrollment
experience, and development of long term ed plans, many students coming into the college are not
doing well their freshman year and there is real need for a first year transition program for these
students. It could be explored as to whether this should even be an option or should in fact be a
required program. This would presumably be the responsibility of the counseling department but
could also reside in other departments – there are many models of good first year transition
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programs and we can follow a “best process” approach of rethinking our practices in ways that
strengthen pathways to program entry and completion.
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The district will develop implementation plans to address state legislations in regards to student
success and enrollment priorities which will require that students participate in core matriculation
services, namely assessment, orientation and counseling.
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The district will establish a team to develop a plan to improve the movement of non-credit students
to credit programs through implementation of an ed plan for non-credit students.
 To address a more comprehensive delivery of services to distance learning students, new online
counseling services will be implemented during the spring 2013 semester. The Counseling Online
Advisory Council will identify best practices for providing services to distance learners and pilot
eSars (an online appointment booking system) and eAdvising (instant messaging/online chat in
real time). Other media options such as SKYPE will also be employed. After collecting data from
distance learners and counselor providers regarding access, usage, and effectiveness, the
workgroup will analyze the data, develop priorities for online student services, and create a
comprehensive plan for full-scale implementation of online counseling services for distance
learners.
Goal
Implement additional counseling
services for distance learners and
methods to evaluate their usage and
effectiveness.
Provide appropriate new support for
service delivery through new online
services
Associated Action(s)
Expected
Completion Date
Create Online Advisory Council composed
of the Dean of Student Support Services,
the coordinator of distance learning, and
representative counseling faculty.
Conduct staff development for counseling
faculty on use of eSars, eAdvising and
SKYPE and implement these services for
distance learners. Collect data on usage
and effectiveness through online surveys.
Analyze and discuss assessment results
and incorporate improvements into the
next academic year cycle.
Spring 2013 for
implementation
Explore and identify computer programs
and online services to help provide timely
information to students, such as Degree
Works and Ask CCSF, based on ASK
Foothill Program.
 Explore June 1,
2013
Fall 2013 for
assessment
Spring 2014 for
analysis and
continuous
improvement
 Implement Fall,
2013
 Go live Spring
2014
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Improve the delivery of services on
effective and efficiency manner
Implement a re-organization of Student
Development
July 1, 2013
Establish a system for timely payment
of student fees
Develop the program for payment of
student fees at point of registration.
Allow for deferral of special groups, a
payment plan and a collection of fees plan
April 1, 2013
Improve the service provided to
students
Through identified trainings, staff will be
able to learn about customer service
 Start January 11,
2013
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techniques, delivery of accurate
information and timely follow-through.
 Set schedule for
Spring 2013 by
February 1.
 Academic year
2013-14 by May
1, 2013
Compliance with student success and
legislation (SB 1456)
The College will form a team to initiate
plans to meet full compliance with the law
 Initiate team in
Spring 2013
 Complete by
Spring 2014
Compliance with enrollment priorities
(Title 5, Section 58108)
Improve matriculation of noncredit
students to Credit Programs
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The College will form a team to work on
the implementation programming and
notice to students of the enrollment
priorities
 Initiate in
February 2013
The College will form a team to develop a
concerted plan to increase the number of
noncredit students with an ed plan and
enrollment in credit programs
 Initiate in Spring
2013
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 Implement for
Fall 2013
Registration
 Implement by
Fall 2014