City College of San Francisco - California Competes

Beginning in September 2004, nine standards committees comprising 131 faculty, classified staff, and
administrators reviewed the documents, reports and other types of evidence using a specific self study
templates to guide their work. The standards committees had a weekly meeting date to discuss and review
their work. By the third week of November, the co-chairs had completed a draft of their report which was
then reviewed by the Steering Committee. Final drafts of the standards reports were completed before the
end of the Fall semester.
During the intersession, the completed standards reports were read by the members of the newly
organized theme committees; discussions among the six theme committees began in February 2005
focusing on how to use the evidence in the standards reports to respond to the six themes proposed by
ACCJC. To insure that each of the themes reflected the realities of City College, the Steering Committee
decided to use a case study approach to provide the readers with specific evidence of how the institution
was working at the campus, program, and course levels. The Work Group provided a standardized format
for the essays and coordinated the selection of case studies for each essay. The drafts of each of the six
essays were completed, reviewed, and modified by May 2005 using campus-based listening sessions and
both regular and special meetings of faculty, classified staff, and students. During the Summer, a threeperson
working group assembled the full draft of the self study.
Finally, we asked the entire College community to read and evaluate the full self study draft during the
period of August through October 2005 and to provide feedback through listening sessions and meetings
of College governance committees. Special sessions for the Board of Trustees and students at the various
campuses were also used to harvest responses to the full draft.
We received many suggestions for improving the draft and, in the instance of the essay on student
learning outcomes, we had to make significant modifications to accommodate a diversity of faculty voices
on the issues related to student learning. This was not the first time we had to address a wide range of
perspectives on an issue, but it was one of the more dramatic examples of how we found common ground
to build a working consensus on a difficult issue.
After a year and a half of hard work, the self study is now complete, and, on behalf of the Board of
Trustees and myself, I extend my thanks to all of us who participated in this extraordinary process.
Furthermore, I welcome the Visiting Team who will read this study, visit our campuses, and provide
us with their evaluation of our work. I invite you to read this study and learn about our institution,
its programs, services, and most important, its commitment to student learning and success.
Dr. Philip R. Day, Jr.
Chancellor
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CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO