The Associated Students Works to Reduce Barriers Rams Fail to Capture Second Straight State Title; Fullerton Hornets Shock Rams 83-73

Gracia Hernandez

ghern140@mail.ccsf.edu

After a season-long show of explosive offense, the City College Rams didn't have enough firepower against the No. 1 Southern California seed, the Fullerton College Hornets, who walked off with an 83-73 victory and the CCCAA state title.

The tough loss to the Hornets on March 12 at the Golden Eagle Arena in West Hills-Lemoore College cost the team its second consecutive state championship title. A win would have given the Rams a sixth state title in men’s basketball, breaking a five-championship tie with Cerritos, Fresno City and Long Beach City.

With a victory Justin Labagh, who has coached the Rams to four of those state titles, would have surpassed legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian, who also collected four state titles. Despite its five titles, City College has never won consecutive state championships. Only three schools have accomplished that feat: Long Beach (1958, 1959); Riverside City (1964, 1965, 1966); and Rancho Santiago–Santa Ana now–(1990, 1991).

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Ellen Yoshitsugu egiese@mail.ccsf.edu

Using the 2021-2022 year as an example, Chancellor David Martin provided a well-explained close-up of how the administration “builds” the college’s budget each spring in his two-hour Zoom webinar on March 3, 2023.

The state chancellor’s office uses the Student-Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) to calculate how much revenue the college has “earned” through the Full Time Equivalent Student (FTES) count and several student success measures. Most of the money to City College comes from local property taxes, Prop 30 (a state voter approved “millionaires tax”), state apportionment and a local parcel tax.

In addition, Martin presented a draft look at next year’s budget, to be finally approved by the trustees in June, and the preliminary instructional allocations for next year, recently shared with department chairs. Able questioning by participants during the Q&A segment led Martin to share

See links to shared documents, Martin’s slides and audio recordings in the sidebar (online).

AFT 2121 executive director Alayna Fredericks’ pointed questions led Martin to affirm that this year he has chosen to hold this forum instead of meeting directly with the union to work together on the budget.

In 2021, during the pandemic, the faculty union agreed to a 10% pay cut in order to stave off further class reductions. This cut along with other staff reductions helped generate a surplus. Martin revealed that the extra funds were used for other purposes such as controversial transfers to the retiree health care trust fund.

Fredericks said these financial choices represented “a really substantial breach of trust and good faith between your administration and both the 900 teachers who serve City College's students, and the public who elects a board to make critical decisions about the priorities and direction of their public institution.”

Martin contended that the fund transfers were necessary to remain accredited and were approved by the trustees when they approved the budget documents at that time.

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Chancellor Brandt also serves on the Participatory Governance Council as well as the Enrollment Management Committee. “I’m really trying to get enrollment management to understand the student perspective is vital in the decision making process at the college. I've just been really vocal in that space,” she said.

Upcoming Events

The Zoom links for both the AS Executive Council which meets Fridays afternoons and the Ocean campus council which meets Wednesday afternoons can be found on the AS webpage.

Here on Ocean campus the AS has organized a Basic Needs Listening Forum on April 21, 2023 from 1 to 4 p.m. in MUB 140. State Senator Scott Weiner has been invited. All students are encouraged to attend and speak.

The Spring General Assembly of the Student Senate of the California Community Colleges is set for March 31st - April 2nd in Long Beach. Here is a partial list of resolutions that are going to be addressed. More information on the Student Senate can be found here.