Update:

As of the morning of Oct. 25, Education Without Borders and the Associated Student Government have canceled this event.

The Campus Alliance Committee and Associated Student Government are organizing the “Campus United” rally from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, outside the Campus Center to petition two controversial board policies presented by the Board of Trustees.  

Board Policy 1300 is an initiative that focuses on more vocational programs and gives enrollment priority to locals apart of the SBCC Foundation’s College Promise Program.

Board Policy 3150 focuses on creating an “stable, continuing optimal size” size by capping enrollment at 15,000 full-time equivalent students. This comes at a time of financial crisis for City College which critics say will continue if the policy is passed. Because of multiple complaints from prominent faculty members about a lack of detail going largely unanswered by the Board of Trustees, Superintendent-President Anthony Beebe has suspended its implementation.  

The student government’s appointed student trustee sits at the table during every board meeting. He has watched the controversy unfold since the initial faculty complaints, and is ready to take action by forming the rally.

“When we have a situation where the faculty and students unanimously oppose two board policies and they still pass, without courtesy of the governing groups to review them further, this calls for a rally,” Student Trustee David Panbehchi told The Channels in a text message.

Panbehchi said he is focusing on attacking on the process rather than the policy itself.

“Fundamentally, I believe the board is way out of touch with our student body and our job is to bring the students together to send that message,” Panbehchi said.

Paul Jarrell, executive vice president of educational services, was asked to clarify the details of the policy to extinguish the concerns of students and faculty by commenting via email but insisted on letting The Channels know that there will be a special meeting 2 to 4p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, to address these two policies.  

Superintendent-president Anthony Beebe clarified a couple of things about Board Policy 3150:

“That cap is an enrollment management target for us to achieve in terms of our finances. We’re at about 14,000 now,” Beebe said.

He pointed to the fact that the state caps their funding and an enrollment management study concluded that 15,000 is the most ideal number based on those funds.

In regards to why he suspended 3150’s implementation, Beebe said that, “People haven’t really had a chance to explore or discuss some of these issues that are related to it because it’s a complicated topic…. These numbers need to be fleshed out and fully understood.”

As the conversation shifted towards Board Policy 1300 which would give priority enrollment to locals, Beebe said “This is still a community college. There is a surface area we are responsible for.”

“From my perspective, the slippery slope we get into has to do with classifying students in general in any way. If you say, well ‘these are vets, these are African American students, these are international, these are local, these are whatever, then you pick one of those, then you highlight this group what happens to all the rest of em? Everyone feels like, ‘well why not me?’” Beebe said.

The Superintendent-president went on to say that he doesn’t like the classification of any group. “As far I’m concerned, when you’re here, you’re an SBCC student, I don’t care where you came from,” Beebe said.

Beebe has high hopes that if the Board of Trustees takes his advice to repeal the proposals at the special meeting Paul Jarrell alluded to above, and give some time for real deliberation and debate, the petitioning rally Wednesday will be a time for “gratitude and happiness.”   

Clarification Oct. 24, 2017:

A previous version of this article misstated that through the policy, enrollment would be capped at 1,500 full-time equivalent students.  An update has been made to read the correct 15,000 number. This article has also been updated to fix spelling errors.