Community College United Campaign

If you would like to mail a check send to:
438 Oxford Street
San Francisco, CA 94134

This page is to fund me as a student organizer bringing higher education students from across California together to take action to protect equity, access and affordability in the community college system. With continued funding I would be able to develop and implement a comprehensive campaign plan and compile data for a report on what is happening in our system. City College of San Francisco has changed my life as it has changed thousands of working class students lives. Right now City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and other community colleges across California are undergoing massive reforms which will limit access and affordability for students. In the past three years alone community colleges have been cut $900 million dollars in funding and we have lost more than 500,000 students. The lost of resources coupled with reform measures will dramatically impact the most disenfranchised college students. Where will these non-traditional students go to pursue their educational goal?

Defending the mission of community colleges is more critical now than ever with sweeping reforms that limit access coming out of the California Legislature, private for-profit colleges wanting more students (business) for their colleges, student debt continuing to rise and the doubling of student loan interest rates, the push to quantify student success with a serious lack of funding for critical support services for students with socioeconomic barriers is just a piece of what we are facing. The California Master Plan for Education states that some form of education should be made available to all but the plan is currently being dismantled. There are currently 2.4 million students in the community college system in California. This system is the largest education system in the world serving predominately working class students.

I am a full time student and I want to continue the work to keep CCSF open and accredited, to protect the mission of California community colleges and our human right to educational access. I have been at CCSF for 3 years completing all of my requirements to transfer to a 4-year university and major in Urban Studies.I am an adult re-entry student and have 13 years of experience as a community organizer, direct service provider and advocate for low income youth and families in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While at CCSF pursuing my studies I got involved in student organizing and have been elected as a representative for Associated Students as Vice President of Communications, President and this year as Student Trustee representing all 90,000 students that depend on CCSF to reach their education goal. I have been a lead organizer with the Save CCSF Coalition and I was just elected to serve as Communications Officer for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges.

I know that I am positioned given my background, skill set and network to move this campaign forward. This work is so critical for the communities I care deeply about, we have to build statewide not just at City College of San Francisco.

To learn more about what is happening at City College of San Francisco and the accreditation crisis check out:
saveccsf.org
www.aft2121.org
http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/en/about-city-college/Accreditation_2012.html

For more information about me you can check my Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/shanell.williams and my LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/pub/shanell-williams/16/956/303/