City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME I
In the area of student support services, CCSF recently restructured its Counseling Department to better
meet the needs of students, driven by a comprehensive assessment of the student services system and
the Student Development Education Master Plan. Rather than a “one size fits all” approach, the once
“General Counseling” Department is now divided into four basic departments: New Student Counseling,
Continuing Student Counseling, International Student Counseling, and Transfer Student Counseling.
In addition to the reorganization, the various counseling departments are beginning to utilize a case
management approach better suited to meeting individual students’ needs.
Of particular note, given its relationship to basic skills, 2 is CCSF’s success in reaching out to immigrant
students, primarily through English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, as supported by its recent
receipt of the 2004 MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Award. Through both noncredit
and credit instruction, the ESL Department provides access to the English-speaking world and to the
diverse cultures of the United States. It enables students to gain the language skills necessary to move into
vocational- and academic-track coursework, transfer to four-year institutions, live and work in the United
States, and succeed in English-speaking environments. ESL is the largest department at CCSF with over 130
course offerings (with multiple sections) and more than 360 faculty members.
The MetLife award recognized CCSF’s accomplishment in the areas of innovation, institution-wide commitment,
and improved outcomes based on careful assessment of strategies that promote access, retention,
and completion for students from underserved populations. In particular, the brochure announcing the
award commends CCSF’s strategic planning process, data collection and analysis (particularly through
the Decision Support System), and its “sophisticated and varied education program [serving] the city’s
immigrants.” This brochure concludes that:
CCSF has channeled its remarkable entrepreneurial energy by using data to assess progress and identify
service gaps and by soliciting input from community leaders and residents. Its commitment to improvement
and to serving an incredibly diverse community is evident across both the credit programs and the
non-credit, pre-college programs that make up a large proportion of CCSF offerings. (MetLife Foundation
2004 Community College Excellence Award brochure)
CCSF’s Mission and Planning Process: The Mechanisms for Committing to High-Quality Education.
All of CCSF’s instructional and support programs, such as those cited above, flow from its Mission
and Vision Statements. The Mission Statement addresses the core educational purposes of the College’s
programs and services, including preparation for transfer, achievement of associate degrees, acquisition
of career skills, engagement in the civic and social fabric of the community, citizenship preparation,
completion of GED and adult education, promotion of economic development, and lifelong learning
and cultural enrichment. The Mission Statement is supplemented by a Vision Statement that describes
the College’s commitment to high-quality teaching and learning across the full spectrum of educational
offerings. It defines the College’s intended population as “the diverse communities and populations found
throughout San Francisco,” and points to the creation of “an inclusive community with respect for
and enriched by diversity and multicultural understanding, and a commitment to sharing educational
resources and contributing to knowledge, expertise, and innovation in postsecondary education in the
state, nation, and world.”
The Mission and Vision Statements provide the basis and context for strategic planning, annual planning,
annual assessment, and the implementation of programs and services at all of the College’s campuses and
sites. Since the last Self Study for Accreditation, the College conducted comprehensive strategic planning
sessions involving over 50 participants from the College community (both internal and external to the
2 See Definition of Basic Skills within the section entitled “Institutional Commitment to Basic Skills: Rationale for the Case Study.”
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