Judge to rule on CCSF accreditation this week

Claudeen Narnac walks down the steps in front of a City College of San Francisco sign in San Francisco, Calif. on July 3, 2013 Claudeen Narnac walks down the steps in front of a City College of San Francisco sign in San Francisco, Calif. on July 3, 2013 Photo: Ian C. Bates, The Chronicle Photo: Ian C. Bates, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Judge to rule on CCSF accreditation this week 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

City College of San Francisco's fight to stay in business should be allowed to play out - not halted by city officials who want to stop an accrediting commission from doing its job - lawyers for the commission told a judge on Monday.

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which is set to revoke City College's accreditation on July 31, is asking the court to reject San Francisco's request to stop the revocation process midstream.

"With all respect, you're not an expert" in accreditation, attorney Andrew Sclar, representing the commission, told Superior Court Judge Curtis Karnow in arguing that if the court steps in, it would essentially say it was better equipped than the commission to hold community colleges accountable to accreditation standards.

The lawsuit by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is one of three trying to stop the commission from revoking City College's accreditation. Without it, the college of nearly 80,000 students would close. The other suits are from the faculty union and a coalition of students and community members.

City College officials oppose the suits and hope to remain accredited by repairing the school's myriad deficiencies while appealing the commission's decision. The city attorney's suit argues that the commission made errors during its evaluation of City College and that the court should scrap its decisions and start over.

The city bases its claim in part on an August letter from the Education Department that found the commission out of compliance with certain regulations, including that the commission had too few teachers on the team that evaluated City College. The city also claims the commission's review was tainted because it supported a state proposal strongly opposed by faculty and students to ration college classes statewide in favor of students with a graduation plan. The plan passed.

"We're saying the commission violated the law and acted unfairly by conducting the review when they were involved in this political debate," said Deputy City Attorney Sara Eisenberg.

Sclar denied that any such conflict existed and said the Education Department's rebuke of the commission was standard procedure.

"There is no illegality," he said.

Karnow then asked Eisenberg, "Why doesn't it make sense to just let the process play out? They might get another six years of accreditation, and that would solve everything."

If they don't, she said, it would be too late to stop a train wreck - and "there is harm people are experiencing from the fear of this thing happening down the road."

The commission's decision "was based on a tainted process," she said. "Wipe the slate clean. Start over."

Karnow said he expects to rule by the end of the week. He could issue a preliminary injunction to stop the commission from revoking the college's accreditation, or he could reject that request - or abstain from making a decision altogether.

He is also expected to rule on the commission's request to dismiss the faculty union's case against it. Those arguments were heard Thursday.