Board Tackles Reserve Policy, Free City Funding Cuts as Students Fight for Downtown Campus

The CCSF Governing Board's April 10 meeting stretched past six hours as trustees debated how much money to keep in the bank, heard impassioned testimony from dozens of students demanding the college save its downtown campus and drop charges against a student organizer, and advanced a resolution pushing back on the city's proposed 30% cut to Free City funding.

• Board majority backs raising the reserve floor from 5% to 8%, setting up an April 23 action vote on a fiscal policy that divided trustees 4-3
• Dozens of students and community members rallied to block the closure of CCSF's downtown campus, accusing the administration of starving enrollment rather than growing it
• Student organizer Madison Rash's suspension drew sharp condemnation from more than a dozen speakers who called it retaliation for union activity
• Free City resolution advances to defend tuition-free program against the city's proposed cut to $6.48 million — far below the $9.3 million the college says it needs
• Sexual Assault Awareness Month resolution continued to April 23 after proposed amendments sparked a debate over whether the board can direct the Chancellor on spending
• Project Survive celebrated 33 years of peer-led sexual violence prevention, with national recognition and a new doula training course

The meeting's most consequential policy debate came near the end — fitting for a board that acknowledges its meetings run too long — when trustees took up the question of how much money CCSF should hold in reserve.