The San Francisco Community College District Board of Trustees has appointed a queer and nonbinary person as its next permanent chancellor. The decision is expected to be ratified at the board’s May 29 meeting.
After a long search process culminating in campus visits by finalists in mid-March, the appointment of Carlos O. Cortez, Ph.D., the former chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, will be voted on by the board Thursday for a tenure starting July 1, according to a news release.
“I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to serve City College of San Francisco as the college’s new chancellor,” Cortez stated. “I have deep love for San Francisco and the Bay Area. I believe in the capacity of all students to succeed. I pledge to work diligently to create the conditions necessary for all stakeholders to thrive. I am aware of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for CCSF. I believe the college is uniquely positioned to embark on a renaissance. The future is bright for CCSF.”
Cortez spoke with the Bay Area Reporter right before his campus visit earlier this year. The 50-year-old, who was the first chancellor in the state's community college system to identify as queer and nonbinary, is an alum of the University of Southern California.
Cortez said that he'd seen the position available several times and decided to give it a shot. He'd spent some time as an undergraduate in the Bay Area in the 1990s.
"[UC] Berkeley undergrad helped awaken my own queer identity," Cortez said. "My folks made me go back to the East Coast, because they were concerned I was changing too quickly."
After finishing his master's at Georgetown University, Cortez returned to the Golden State. He said he set his eyes on City College because, "I appreciate the population the college serves, the mission of the institution and believe it has an important history that can't be understated."
Cortez said he'd be a good addition because he has helped facilitate communication between different stakeholders, such as the academic senate and faculty groups. He noted that historic relations between administration and the faculty union at City College needed some improvement.
Anita Martinez, the president of the board, stated that Cortez is ideally suited to lead the college, which is the only one in the district.
“I share with the community a positive outlook for the CCSF’s future,” Martinez stated. “Cortez has a proven track record of success in academic innovation, fundraising, student success, and community engagement. As a former City College [English as a second language] teacher, I am excited about the commitment he has to student success and to programs for new Americans, noncredit workforce development, and older adults.”
Cortez would be the district’s fifth permanent head since 2012. The San Francisco Chronicle reported his career has not been without controversy. In 2022, while in San Diego, he was forced to cancel his welcoming ceremony after he invited “The Color Purple” author Alice Walker to speak. Walker has been dogged by allegations of antisemitism, including for a poem that referred to the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, as “poison.”
In January 2024, court records show he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Florida, the paper reported. He pleaded no contest to a reckless driving charge.
One of the finalists competing for the position against Cortez was the college’s current interim chancellor, Mitchell Bailey. The first openly gay male to lead the district, Bailey became interim chancellor last spring after former chancellor David Martin announced his plan to resign at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year. At that time Bailey told the B.A.R. he was not seeking the permanent position, but he changed his mind and made a run for it.
While Bailey is the college's first gay male leader, he's not the first out interim chancellor; that distinction belongs to lesbian Susan Lamb, who was tapped for the position in 2015, as the B.A.R. reported. The B.A.R. reached out to Bailey through a spokesperson, who stated he is on vacation and is thus unavailable for comment.
The Chronicle reported last year that layoffs and budget cuts in an attempt to achieve fiscal stability made former chancellor Martin unpopular with parts of the faculty union.
Fiscal concerns
The district has a budget of $300 million. While the board was able to approve a balanced budget and set aside a 5% reserve, it faced harsh criticism from students and faculty over the cuts it made to do so. And it is already bracing for more fiscal challenges as it works on its next budget and those in coming years.
In adopting its budget last year, the college district warned it could be facing a $171,494 deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1. And it projected the deficit could balloon to nearly $8.5 million in fiscal year 2027-2028.
Further complicating matters is the school's relationship with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which accredits community colleges nationwide.
In 2013, the ACCJC decided to revoke City College's accreditation – which allows credits to be recognized by employers and transferred to other institutions, and which also allows the college to be eligible for federal funds – subject to a one-year review and appeals period.
The ACCJC cited the college's governance, finances and insufficient self-evaluation in its decision. Former city attorney Dennis Herrera filed legal challenges to stop the revocation, but before the legal challenges could be resolved, the ACCJC changed tact and renewed the college's accreditation in 2015 for two years, despite continuing to hold the college was out of compliance. In 2017, accreditation was renewed for seven years.
In 2024, the ACCJC declined to renew accreditation immediately and charged the board of trustees with putting together a corrective plan, to be implemented by 2027.
The plan was submitted in January to the ACCJC and details how the board is addressing finances, complying with its bylaws and observing separation of powers between the chancellor and the board. Earlier this year, City College announced a refinancing of a portion of its remaining 2015 bonds without extending them, taking advantage of decreased interest rates. The interest rate reduction from 4.8 to 2.8% reduces San Franciscans' tax bills by $6.3 million over the next six years.
In his campus interview in mid-March, Cortez said he felt the ACCJC had been unfair in the past, saying the college was "severely mistreated." But he also said that the college needs a strong leader who can make all sides feel heard in a conflict.
"When you have faculty marching into a chancellor's office and demanding his resignation, there are discussions that could have been had between those constituent parties before," Cortez said, saying at the time that the chancellor chosen needs to "understand that if there's conflict on campus, it's their job" to address it.
"The role of the chancellor is to ensure stakeholders are in agreement about the direction they're moving in, and that they're happy," he said. "When students, community members and the board are all happy with how the college is doing, I go home early and I sleep well at night."
Cortez said that he wanted to boost the college's non-credit (also known as continuing education) courses. He'd said San Francisco had been the leader in that field till he beefed up the San Diego program, and said non-credit is the frontline of diversity, equity, and inclusion because it brings underrepresented communities into higher education.
"We're doing the work of the Creator," he said. "DEI work is about being a good person."
