Cantonese Program at City College of San Francisco Hits Delay, but Will Move Forward

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.”

Cantonese is the most-spoken Chinese language in the Bay Area, and about one-tenth of San Francisco’s population speaks the language.

But in 2021, Cantonese classes were on the chopping block at CCSF largely due to a lack of funding. Enrollment was not the problem — every Cantonese class at the school has been full since the fall of  2019, according to Wong. But the courses were not eligible for state funding because they couldn’t be transferred to a four-year college and because there was no formal certification program for them.

As the school considered cutting the courses, advocates quickly pushed back and organized a campaign to keep Cantonese education by creating a formalized program.

Their efforts were successful, and in January 2022, the City College Board of Trustees approved a policy Wong authored that would create two new Cantonese certificates that would enable state funding for the courses while promoting the program to students.

The Board of Trustees ratified the courses and both a nine-unit and a 16-unit Cantonese certificate on Nov. 10, 2022.

But about two weeks later, the City College Curriculum Committee retracted its support for the 16-unit certificate. The 16-unit program was then moved back to draft status while the department worked to develop more resources and offerings.

“It’s not right that the certificate was taken away from the community because suddenly it is decided that the program needs another class. It was ready to go,” Wong said.

At the Board of Trustees meeting on June 22, there will be an action item considering a vote on whether to acknowledge that the college will work to make the 16-unit certificate a reality in the future, Wong said.

Advocates for the Cantonese programs say they are essential to connecting the Chinese-speaking community with essential services and support. For example, many first responders such as medical workers, police officers and social service providers take courses at CCSF to be able to communicate with that community. The classes are also often filled with people looking to learn about their heritage and talk with relatives.

“It’s absolutely unfair that the Cantonese certificate program was yanked off after it had gone through all the proper processes because there is a change of heart for the program by some,” Wong said. “We need to follow through on our commitments and our process.”

KQED reporter Matthew Cardoza contributed to this report.