Brigitte Davila
- Office: Board of Trustees
- Election Date: November 8, 2022
- Candidate: Brigitte Davila
- Due Date: Monday, August 29, 2022
- Printable Version
Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the November 8, 2022 general election! GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government.
The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco and have the expertise to enact meaningful policy changes.
We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by Monday, August 29, 2022 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.
Vision
GrowSF believes in a growing, beautiful, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous San Francisco. And we believe that great public schools are necessary for a great and prosperous society.
This section of our questionnaire seeks to help us gain an understanding of your alignment with our vision for San Francisco.
Short-form questions
Please mark the box that best aligns with your position. You may explain any position if you so desire, but this section is designed to be a quick overview of your view of the city's problems and what solutions you might propose.
Education
| In general, is it too hard, just right, or too easy to… | Too hard | Just right | Too easy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enroll in City College | X | ||
| Hire good teachers | X | ||
| Fire bad teachers | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Enrolling at City College is an ordeal akin to hazing by frats at some colleges. I know because I actually enroll in City College classes. The system has been patched and added to before I served on the Board. Because we balanced the budget last semester, we now have the funds for a seamless registration system and I'm happy to say the Request for Proposals has already gone out.
Budget
| In general, is City College budgeting too much, just enough, or too little on… | Too much | Just Enough | Enough, but badly | Too little |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facilities | X | |||
| Extracurricular activities | X | |||
| Teacher salaries | X | |||
| Administrative salaries | X | |||
| Support for students like tutoring, scholarships, career counseling, etc | X | |||
| Classes which count toward degrees | X | |||
| Classes or programs which don't count toward degrees | X |
If you want to explain any positions above, please feel free:
Under Facilities, I checked "Just Enough" but there are no categories that capture the complexity right now. I advocated for the $845 million dollar Facilities Bond in 2022 that was passed in th e2020 election. Our facilities were in bad shape and needed renovation or, in the case where a building costs much more to repair and maintain, (excluding buildings of historical significance) building a replacement structure. We now are working to spend the bond money on upgrading our facilities and we have three approved by the State Architect's office now and one more on the way. So yes, we have enough, but due to pandemic supply issues and increased construction costs we will need to create a priority list for the projects.
Support for students, is an area that deserves further attention. I am advocating for using some of the unused Prop W funds to hire more counselors and tutors. While we have enough according to the state chancellor's ratio of counselors to students, I believe for true equity, it is important to increase staffing for our first-generation college students. It would not cost the taxpayers anymore because it would be coming out to the Free City College funds.
In terms of adminstrative salaries, while they do seem high, it is what the market will bear as they are high across the state and there are less and less qualified candidates who are willing to take on these jobs.
Why is City College facing a budget crisis? Please provide a short answer here, and a longer answer in the "Long-form questions" section.
To put it succinctly, we are facing a budget crisis because we had too many employees and not enough students. This was a crisis several years in the making. We were hoping to grow our way out of it with increased enrollment, and then we tried offering retirement incentives to reduce by attrition. Finally the Board was left with no choice but to lay off employees as we face accreditation.
Instruction
Tell us about the quality of education available at City College, and what should be done to improve it, if needed.
First, we have a very high quality of education for our students. I have seen this myself as a student and through my nephew's classes. Post pandemic: we have some options that we need to think about. Now that faculty are familiar with online learning we need to assess where and when we offer online, in-person and hybrid classes. Before the pandemic very few faculty wanted to teach online and now we may be facing the opposite proble,m. We need to assess what classes might be good online options for working students and what classes should be in person depending on the students. For example, an ESL class at the Mission Center should be offered in person for the English language learners in the initial stages, while a Visual Media Design class might be perfect offered online.
Tell us one thing you think needs to change about City College that the average voter wouldn't know about.
Our $845 million Facilities Bond could be rendered useless if we are not accredited. It happened before in 2012, so it is not a far leap for it to happen again if steady governance and fiscal responsibility are not in the mix after November 8, 2022. We are in great need of updated facilities for our classes.
Long-form questions
General
In what ways is City College succeeding?
We have finally gotten our budget under control. Good governance is prevailing and we will get our accreditation and get our message out that CCSF is a truly great opportunity.
In what ways is City College failing?
Getting the message out that we are really a great college and a fabulous deal. We have stakeholders that care deeply about students and the mission of the college. It seems like bad news is the only news because some stakeholders don't agree with the direction of the college, would rather poison it for all if they do not get their way. A recent example - our engineering club has won the solar boat regatta year after year against powerhouse four year schools. We have some truly great learning opportunities at CCSF.
Instruction and Curriculum
What can the Community College Board do to improve student performance at City College?
Students can use more support. There is plenty of evidence for the fact that students who enroll full time do better than their part-time peers. Whatever we can do to help students become full time students will assist their performance and, ultimately, their ability to compete for a job that pays a living wage. This support is more important than ever because our students are not just recent high school graduates. We have a thriving Working Adults Program that could be expanded with more support. A PUENTE program that connects first generation students to mentors out in the work world, and many other programs that support what is now our "average" student: 27 years old with family responsibilities in a low income or working class household. A Pell grant doesn't begin to cover the costs of attending full time.
Are students graduating with the skills necessary to obtain a good job? Why or why not?
Students who do graduate have the skills necessary to transfer too a four year BA program or are competent in their career area with an AA degree, especially with a certificate.
What is the City College curriculum lacking which the Community College Board could rectify?
Two areas: I would like to see more multidisciplinary courses in the sciences and the arts reaching across a disciplinary bridge to inform each other. For example, music and math, cooking and chemistry, and language and coding skills. This is a cutting edge area across the country that demistifies hard sciences and makes it more accessible to students who might not have considered the sciences otherwise. I am advocating for and participating in an HSI grant to fund a project of this nature.
The other area we need more curriculum is for the community classes for the casual, (often times older) San Francisco resident. Many years ago, CCSF took on the adult education classes that had been the responsibility of SFUSD. That was fine when the State was funding every fully enrolled class, but the State is now focusing on students who want to get a transfer degree or certificate. These non transfer students are still part of our community and the City should pay for these adult education non-credit and and credit classes or place them outside of the community college in the Recreation & Parks curriculum.
Budget
Why is City College facing a budget crisis? Please explain the nature of this budget crisis.
City College lost many students after the first accreditation crisis which included a State takeover. Just taking the bus around town, i would talk to students who told me they decided to go to nearby community colleges because they seemes more stable. This is a very rational response to all the bad press about CCSF in 2012/13. The accreditation issue was complicate but ist was never about our academic programs and teaching. It was about our financial situation. We were moving in a positive direction and adding more students everyyeat but not enough to offset the previous losses. We tried to avoid layoffs by offering an attractive retirement incentive, but received few takers from the faculty. And then, with the Pandemic, we lost another 25% of our students. We were maintaining way too many employees based on the number of students enrolled and it was eating up most of our operating expenses. This means money was tied up in salaries and we could not do the things colleges are required to do for accreditation like provide professional development funding or upgrade our computers, for example. Funding is determined through FTE's or students in seats the previous semester, further the State has implemented a funding formula that rewards colleges for robust transfer and certificate programs, as well as higher graduation rates.
Long story short, too much of our operating expenses were going to salaries and we did not have enough students to justify that expense.
What hard choices must City College make to fix its budget crisis?
I along with other members of my Board, including John Rizzo and Thea Selby had to make an extremely tough decision. We were warned 3 times by the state and most recently by the accreditation agency - that we needed to get our finances in order and develop a budget for the students that we actually have, not the students we hope to have. (A little history - CCSF never recovered enrollment losses from the last accreditation debacle in 2012 and the pandemic exacerbated this enrollment problem. In addition, the state took over the college and relieved the Board of its duties in 2013 due to financial problems.)
Now in 2022, Salaries were 94% of our operating costs and we could not afford other accreditation requirements. Although we had tried to adjust by offering incentivized retirement benefits - we had few takers. This left us with no other choice than to lay off faculty. This is the most difficult decision I have faced in my life, especially as a faculty member myself. I saw no choice, though, and I will not risk another state takeover for CCSF. Thanks to our action we do now have a balanced budget, no structural deficit and we have met all the other requirements for accreditation.
What courses or programs should City College cut to improve its budget situation?
It's less a matter of specific courses and programs and more a matter of which departments and programs had higher numbers of underenrolled classes and/or too many faculty members for the number of students enrolled. For example, ESL received a cut because the classes were very under-enrolled. The Board has committed to hiring the laid-off teachers once enrollment justifies adding additional classes.
What new revenue streams might City College tap into to address its budget crisis?
The (2016 Prop W) Free City College revenue stream can be helpful, but there are a lot of requirements before we can use those funds. One thing the City can do is support the adult education non-credit classes like the Older Adult Program (See my answer above). Last, overall, public higher education budgets have been cut to the bone - it is time that the state stopped funding community colleges like its 1982 and create a more realistic funding source.
Policy
Now that we know where you align and differ from our vision for San Francisco, we'd like to get some details about how you intend to use your elected office to achieve your goals.
Why are you running for Community College Board?
I am running for re-election to my third and final term on the City College Board of Trustees. I have a number of important projects I started and want to finish up. Accreditation for the next seven years…. I want to break ground and start construction on, at least, the first three projects and start using the $845M of bond money we raised in 2020. I want to land an innovative HSI grant that helps faculty and students explore the relationship between Science, Math and Technology with the Arts. I want to get our dual enrollment program up and running so that HS students can get 2 years of college while in High School. I also am involved in lobbying at the state and federal level for more funding to support students - that never ends.
What is your #1 policy goal?
ACCREDITATION is my #1 Policy Goal right now. What many people don't realize is that without accreditation there is no point for a community colleges existence at least for equity students. Without accreditation there is no State funding, no financial aid and no ability to transfer units. When critics charge that accreditation is corrupt or emphasizes the worong metrics, all I can say is that is a fight for another day. Accreditation is too important to risk losing. I do not think City College would survive another state takeover or accreditation debacle. Our Board has made sure the path is clear for our accreditation in 2023 and for the next seven years.
How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal?
It is interesting that most people that I speak to about this don't even know about the accreditation or that the Board has a fiduciary duty to maintain a balanced budget and maintain a long-term perspective to ensure that the college's facilities and programs will be accessible by future generations of students. As the public hears about this, more are surprised that this race isn't about bad trustees going rogue and laying off teachers just for fun. As trustees, we take a much more balanced approach keeping the mission of the college in mind as opposed to only one stakeholders claims. We do have support for this position. All our San Francisco State legislators support our position. As we get our message out, we are building a coalition dedicated to good governance.
Will the power of the office of Community College Board be enough to achieve this goal?
Yes, working with the Chancellor's staff, the Board has paved the way for our accreditation process. This could be all undone, however, as many of the candidates for trustee this election have vowed to hire back every last faculty member that was laid off in May. This would be a huge mistake, we would be back in the same place again with a structural deficit, out of compliance with the state chancellor's office and the Accreditation agency, with no way to make improvements necessary for accreditation. If that is the case, i do foresee another state takeover.
What are your #2 and #3 policy goals?
ENROLLMENT: Increasing enrollment is the lifeblood of the college and we have been hit hard by both the accreditation debacle in 2012/13 and the pandemic. We need to bring students back. We started doing this before the pandemic through marketing and Free City and we started seeing results - we need to go back to that. I see the new registration system as a part of the marketing to attract students back. By the way, this is not unique to City College, enrollments are down across the country and the state. We need to use everything we have to increase enrollments. We've done it before and we can do it again.
TRANSPARENCY: I think we can do much more to increase transparency. We now have a contract for an independent auditing consultant that reports directly to the Board. I also want to support the process for review by all stakeholders.
Will the power of the office of Community College Board be enough to achieve these goals?
Both increased enrollment and transparency is something that the Board can absolutely support through our policies and direction to the chancellor.
What is an existing policy you would like to reform?
The hiring process needs a thorough revision to conform to both state law and DEI best practices. This is something that the board can do and is doing through our Board direction to the Chancellor and increasing awareness of the hiring process. Whether intentional or not, we have one of the most undiverse faculty group in California. I'd like to work on allowing different voices to become a part of the CCSF family.
What is an "out there" change that you would make to state/local government policy, if you could? (For example: changing how elections work, creating a Bay Area regional government, etc.)
How community colleges are funded. They are funded in the same manner as the CSU and UC systems but attract much more diverse students which requires different levels of support. If elected, I plan to work on this as I have a good relationship with our San Francisco state legislatures (Phil Ting, Matt Haney and Scott Weiner have all endorsed me) I also have relationships with other State Senators and Assembly members from across Souther California through NALEO. So this is entirely feasible, if "out there" (as in has never been done before).
Personal
Tell us a bit about yourself!
What is your professional background?
I currently teach at San Francisco State University and I bring 27 years of higher education experience to my role at trustee. I'm actively teaching and not retired, this experience in a college classroom has helped to inform many policy decisions. I also have eight years of experience on the Board of Trustees and know how to move things forward. I am also a member of my faculty union and can understand the view from the other side as a faculty member. I fought for equitable funding for higher education at the state and federal government levels.
I also bring a deep understanding of the issues and needs of the Latinx community to the Board. I have the lived experience of growing up in a working-class Chicanx neighborhood in Los Angeles and experiencing life as a first-generation college student. I also have the theory and policy understanding from my work in the Latina/o Studies Department at San Francisco State University.
Last, I have a law degree from Berkeley Law which assists my understanding of and gives me the tools to impact the public policy making which the Board handles. My life and professional experience give me the ability to be a truly unique asset to the Board and the CCSF community.
Are you currently or formerly enrolled at City College, and/or do you have any children who are currently or formerly enrolled at City College?
I have taken Visual Media Design Classes over the years. It is a type of professional development for teaching, I use the skills gained to create information graphics slide designs and course graphics to better support the courses I teach.
How long have you lived in San Francisco? What brought you here and what keeps you here?
I have worked and lived in San Francisco for almost 30 years. I came up to attend UC Berkeley as a first generation college student. I had rarely even traveled outside of Los Angeles County before that. I was blown away about how different it was from Southern California (even more so back then) It was vibrant and diverse in a way I had never experienced in Los Angeles, plus beautiful views from just about everywhere. I have lived in the Bay Area ever since.
What do you love most about California and/or San Francisco?
I've tried to move out of state every time I graduated (mostly to Colorado), but it never took. I am a Californian, through and through. I love the political activity in San Francisco. We are about 49 square miles and have almost the same number of political clubs, more if you count civic clubs weighing in on issues.
What do you dislike the most about California and/or San Francisco?
Two things that need to be changed in California, access to housing and access to healthcare. It affects all of us whether we have access or not.
As for San Francisco, I think our politics tends to end up in progressive or moderate silos that are not helpful to solving problems. This race is one of them.
Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)
I recently stepped down as a statewide representative to the California Community College Trustees Board. I did this to accommodate my duties as President of the CCSF Board of Trustees. I am also an officer in the S.F. District 11 Democratic Club and a former officer and still a member of the S.F. Latino Democratic Club. I have been a member of many other Democratic Clubs, but my longest tenure is with the two I just mentioned. I am also a member of the Mission Terrace Improvement Assocciation and I work with OMI Collaborative and Together SF on street cleaning. I am a lifetime member of NALEO (Natinal Assoc. of Latino Elected Officers) and I participate in their higher education workshops.
Thank you
Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!
If you see any errors on this page, please let us know at contact@growsf.org.