Update, 6 p.m. June 26: City College of San Francisco plans to offer its new 16-unit Cantonese Certificate of Achievement program in the 2024-25 academic year, the president of the board of trustees announced Tuesday.
“We need this certificate so that we can train the next generation of public safety, health care, and social workers that can serve and build trust with the Chinese community,” said President Alan Wong, an advocate for Cantonese-language courses at the school, in a press statement.
Advocates pushed for the 16-unit certificate because it will meet requirements for state funding, which the program needs to stay afloat. Cantonese courses at CCSF were previously on the chopping block due to limited funding, even though Cantonese is the most commonly spoken Chinese language throughout the Bay Area.
CCSF only currently offers four conversational courses in the Cantonese curriculum and employs just one part-time Cantonese instructor.
The new 16-unit program was initially slated to begin in the coming academic year. But to the dismay of advocates, some school officials successfully pushed to delay the launch of the expanded program, arguing that necessary resources wouldn’t be available in time.
“The community celebrated the Cantonese certificate after the Board of Trustees voted to move it forward and were all shocked to see it get pulled,” Wong said. “It was unfair and unjust and we need to rebuild the trust with our Chinese community.”
Original story, 4 p.m., June 21: City College of San Francisco is pulling a Cantonese certificate program after the school’s Board of Trustees approved the 16-unit course sequence last November.
The reversal follows a long battle to preserve CCSF courses on the language spoken by many Chinese immigrants in the Bay Area. A nine-unit Cantonese certificate program is still on track for approval, but the larger 16-unit course series has been reverted to draft status.
“Having Cantonese education in San Francisco is not just about preserving a language or culture or history,” City College Board President Alan Wong told KQED. “We need to be able to ensure that we have the next generation of public contact workers that are able to speak Cantonese and be able to support the seniors and elders and in the immigrant community that speak Cantonese.”