City College Loses Latest Appeal, Running Out of Options to Stay Open

City College of San Francisco is mulling over one of its final options in its fight to stay open. The commission overseeing its fate rejected new evidence Monday that school administrators presented in hopes to prove it has fixed financial and managerial problems behind the threatened loss of accreditation.

City College must now decide by the end of this month whether to ask the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges to grant it "restoration status."

Paul Feist, a spokesman for the statewide community college chancellor's office, said he's "tremendously disappointed" with the commission's decision. He said restoration is "something to consider."

"If the college is accepted into this status it would have two years under which to complete its recovery," he said.

But Feist said college administrators haven't made a final decision about whether to apply for this status, which is a brand-new policy in response to City College's situation.

Politicians and the U.S. Department of Education have waded into the battle between the college and the commission over the past year.

In what could be the school's only alternative to restoration, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has sued the commission for allowing political bias to cloud its judgement in its decision to revoke the college's accreditation.

That trial is set for October, and under a preliminary injunction granted by the court, the school stays open until its conclusion.