City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME V
Organizational support for providing programs to support student learning. One of the operational
objectives in the 2003-04 Annual Plan for the School of Science and Mathematics, which houses the
Biotechnology Program, is “To provide high quality educational programs and courses for associate
degrees, transfer to baccalaureate institutions, career education and workforce training …” and the
Operational objectives include “Continue to develop the College initiative in workforce education and
economic development …” The Biotechnology Program is cited in the Annual Plan as one of the school’s
strong workforce training programs. Several needs of the Biotechnology Program are noted in the “assessment
of problems and needs” section of the Annual Plan. One is the need for more sections of classes:
“With strong demands for BIO 11 and CHEM 32, many of the beginning biotech students could not find
spaces in these classes.” As a result, they were able to add more sections of these courses in Spring 2005.
Also this report notes that “In terms of equipment, ASTR, BIO, BIOTEC and ENGN have long lists of
equipment to keep their courses up-to-date.” Further, “Space for labs and offices are major problems in
BIO, BIOTECH, CNIT, and PHYC.”
The need for constant updating of curriculum, faculty retraining, equipment, supplies, and facilities to
keep up with a rapidly changing industry make the Biotech program expensive to maintain. Fortunately,
the Office of Research, Planning and Grants has been instrumental in seeking and receiving major grant
funding to sustain the program. Half of the salaries of the two coordinators of the biotechnology program
are grant funded. VTEA funded the original Bridge to Biotech program and has provided crucial support
in launching numerous other vocational programs at the College. The Bridge to Biotech program currently
has a $500,000 grant from NSF’s Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program (CCLI), and
the On-Ramp to Biotech program has a $600,000 grant from the NSF Partnership for Innovation Program
and also receives VTEA funding. These grants fund curriculum development and expansion of these
programs. An NSF ATE grant for $815,000 has funded a project entitled Fix-a-Gene that trains students to
work in gene therapy. A Genentech grant is supporting the development of an equipment clearinghouse.
The College also has a Center for Applied Competitive Technology (CACT) grant, which, along with some
funding from other grants, supports the new equipment clearinghouse, Bio-Link, and NCBC. Bio-Link
originated in 1998 as the NSF Advanced Technological Education Center for Biotechnology, and, over
the years, has received $6.5 million from NSF. Bio-Link’s primary purpose is to improve biotechnology
education throughout the United States, providing professional development for instructors, promoting
partnerships with industry, and creating a network of educators who share resources and information.
Bio-Link draws on a network of regional centers located in community colleges throughout the nation,
including NCBC, funded by the State Chancellor’s office, which also resides at CCSF. NCBC, like Bio-Link,
supports workforce and economic development in biotechnology through curriculum development,
professional development for faculty, and industry partnerships, but at a local level.
Through Instructional Block Grant funding, the Biotechnology Program has received some funds to
develop a lab at the Southeast Campus, but the Biotechnology Program has mainly relied on other
grant funding to meet its needs and in fact has been able to provide the Biology Department with some
supplies. Since the program is mainly sustained by outside funding, it has not needed to make a lot of
requests through the College’s budgeting process for the limited College funds available. If grant funding
diminishes, finding alternate ways to fund the program will become a serious concern. The Buildings
and Grounds Department has provided support to the Department in getting equipment donations
from industry. Equipment worth about $250,000 has been received from companies such as Amersham
Bioscience, Bayer, Chiron, and Genetech. The program has been challenged to find ways to collect the
large equipment and sort, store, catalog, and establish processes for checking out equipment. Fortunately,
a grant has funded a position to coordinate the development of this equipment clearinghouse.
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