The Guardsman SFPUC Orders CCSF to Vacate Southeast Bayview Campus

By Ellen Yoshitsugu egiese@mail.ccsf.edu

With one day’s notice, City College staff mobilized, in mid-April, to clear college property from the Southeast Center campus at 1800 Oakdale Ave in San Francisco’s Bayview district. A March 30, 2023, letter from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) informed the college that due to needed repairs, the building was no longer usable and the college’s lease had been terminated.

On April 19 and 20, during the few hours of allowed access, staff from the City College library, ITS and facilities departments were on site filling moving boxes with books from the library, and salvaging computer and network hardware. Both Cynthia Dewar from the Educational Technology Office and Alberto Vasquez from Facilities and Capital Planning directed questions to the chancellor's office.

City College opened its campus at the Center in the early ‘90s, offering as many as 25 classes annually according to Chancellor David Martin. Four classes were taught there in Spring 2020; the center has been shuttered since then. As early as last summer, ITS staff were told that no more classes were to be scheduled there.

Inside, four floors of classrooms and offices surrounded a pleas ant light-filled atrium. The library looked up-to-date; the computer lab did not. Dusty bulletin boards cele brated African American heritage. According to the PUC notice, the building requires seismic upgrades and ventilation repairs totalling more than the value of the building, and it is likely to be demolished.

In the 1970’s, following passage of the federal Clean Water Act, the city undertook a major expansion of the wastewater treatment plant located in the historically black neighborhood. Powerful commu nity protests won a mitigation agreement that led to the construc tion of the South East Community Center on Oakdale, adjacent to the plant. PUC, continued on page 2