By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

SAN FRANCISCO – The City College of San Francisco is fighting to preserve its accreditation status.

The accreditation commission has identified the college’s financial problems, caused largely by its huge labor budget, as a major cause for concern. The school has until March 15 to demonstrate to the commission its long-term financial viability.

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College officials tried to take a step in that direction in recent week by imposing a mandatory 4.4 percent salary reduction on instructors and other staff for the rest of the academic year.

College officials cite something called the “trombone clause,” which gives the college the right to retract wages during tough economic times, according to NBC Bay Area. We’re not sure where this clause comes from, but it makes perfect sense for this college or any other type of struggling entity, for that matter.

“The trombone clause says that in good times, when we have good budgets from the state and better economics, we can share that largess with our employees,” Larry Kamer, a spokesman for the college, told NBC Bay Area. “But it retracts in bad times, which is where we are at now. And that’s our view.”

The American Federation of Teachers, which represents instructors at the college, has filed a grievance and an unfair labor charge against the administration. Union officials say the trombone clause only kicks in when the college is hit with a state funding cut in mid-year, which is not the case this year.

But college officials note that union collective bargaining has left them in such a bad financial position that the school could lose its accreditation. They say they spend about 90 percent of their budget on faculty compensation and benefits, which is the highest percentage in the state.

So CCSF has to trim costs to keep its accreditation. And 90 percent of its budget is spent on employee compensation. Can the needed savings be found in the remaining 10 percent of the budget without gutting student programs?

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We doubt it. It appears that the AFT negotiated its way into this mess, and now it’s going to have to give something up. You can only bleed a beast for so long before it collapses from a loss of blood.

A full collapse for CCSF is just around the corner. The bleeding has to stop. If the union cares about the future of this college, it will stand aside and allow its members to do with less for a while.