Candidate Name:
William Walker
Phone Number:
(415) 494-9480
Web site:
www.ccsfwill.com
E-mail:
william@ccsfwill.com
Name of Campaign Manager:
William Walker
How much do you expect to spend in this contest:
$10,000
Major Endorsements:
SEIU Local 1021 City College chapter
Incumbent Board Member whose votes most reflect your values:
Incumbent whose votes least reflect your values:
Challenging to say, but based on the recent layoff vote, Alan Wong.
1. What is your stance on COVID safety at CCSF? Under what circumstances might you support instating a mask or vaccine mandate, or canceling in-person classes? What would be the main basis on which you make this decision? (e.g., would it be based on your gut feelings, or whose advice would you listen to?)
I would implement COVID restrictions based upon the following:
Guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control, CA Department of Public Health, and the San Francisco County Health Officer.
After conferring with the four official stakeholder groups of the college, based upon each of their stakeholder groups having an official process.
Observing how infection rates impact the campus community and implementing policy based upon actual events; if there were an increase in positive cases in campus, then implementing a mask policy and protocols to protect employees and students.
2. Why are you running for College Board?
I want the college to decrease the inequities experienced by students of color and from underrepresented groups. As a community organizer, I worked with fellow organizers to create a space where students of color could see themselves as successes even though I never felt like a success at CCSF. I took 6 years to complete studies at CCSF and transfer to UC Berkeley. Another 16 years would elapse before I received my BA. I've worked for more almost 30 years in community organizations, government and nonprofits. I've served on boards, managed budgets and built the partnerships necessary to establish new programs and grow enrollment at loval community colleges (CCSF, Foothill).
3. How are you currently involved in the Community College -- or how
were you involved in the past:
I am a former Student Trustee, a former Student Shared Governance Coordinator, former Student Body President, a former Student Body Vice President of Administration, a former elected Senator, a former Black Student Union president, and former retention program student worker charged with giving campus tours to and recruiting SFUSD high school students to attend CCSF.
I possess three decades of work experience in government, nonprofit administration, student services administration, public education, community organizing, and radio production. I currently teach at high schools throughout San Francisco, Alameda and San Mateo counties. I received 50,000 votes in my 2012 CCSF candidacy and 57,000 votes in my 2014 CCSF candidacy. I was only 8,000 votes short of winning in 2014, and received more than a dozen endorsements.
4. What is your stance on public and private partnerships within the
college?
Public private partnerships should never be formed to eliminate public sector jobs. But public private partnerships with the right organizations could help grow programs, increase enrollment, and stabilize funding for the college. I want to see a partnership with companies like Salesforce to create a Hack Reactor style bootcamp for students that can't afford a $14,000 tuition bill to convert to a job in the tech industry.
5. What is your position on Free City College? How should it
be changed, if at all?
Free City College needs a marketing strategy. It should be co-branded with a robust high school concurrent enrollment program. Our students could be completing lower division requirements by senior year so when they start college officially after high school graduation, they only have their upper division courses remaining.
Free City should develop pathways to attract different parts of the community. Workers, re-entry students, dislocated workers, lifelong learners.
Free City should also have ambassadors to acquaint first time students with the bureaucracy of CCSF.
6. If elected to the Board, how would you ensure that you and the
public would receive the college's draft budget with sufficient
time to review it thoroughly before adopting it?
The budget process should have a published timeline that is publicized to the community three months prior to first reading. It should be an annual board item at the same board meeting each year. It should align with the City and County Board of Supervisors process and the SFUSD Board of Education process. The four constituent groups -- students, staff, faculty and administrators-- should also have a public budget review process. All processes should have space for public comment.
7. What is your position on selling campus properties?
Campus properties should not be sold without a vote by the San Francisco voters. The campus is public space.
8. Do you feel there is enough transparency or public disclosure of
the Board and the college: How would you change things?
There isn't enough public disclosure or transparency. I would work with the Board to implement policies in accordance with the City's Sunshine Act and the State's Brown Act. I would blog about meetings as I did when I served on the Board as student trustee (ccsfwill.blogspot.com). I would hold the Chancellor accountable when board reports aren't provided in a timely manner in accordance with public governance laws.
9. Have you attended the Community College Board meeting? Would you
change public comment policy at the meetings: If so, how?
Public comment on every item is necessary to ensure each item is heard. The meetings I've attended this fiscal year in zoom do not seem to have as accessible a public comment process as there was when I served on the board previously.
10. How will you increase quality child care at ALL campuses?
Expanding the child development program could create opportunities for child care to happen at each campus. Partnering with the school district and pursuing grants from the San Francisco Foundation or USF to grow these programs while partnering with communities of high unemployment like Bayview Hunters Point where residents there might benefit from picking up early childhood certifications.
11. How will you work to counter and prevent profiling and police
harassment on campus? What is your position on police firearms on
campus?
SFCCDPD should not possess firearms. I do not have personal experiences of being profiled by SFCCDPD other than when I led student protests prior to being an elected student government leader. After being elected, we worked with campus police to develop policies that would prevent students from being profiled. I would be happy to continue this work as a Trustee.
12. What is your position on allowing noncitizens the right to vote for
College Board and other local elections? Did you take a public
position on previous ballot initiatives on the subject?
I am supportive of noncitizens voting in college Board elections. I held this same position as student body President, Vice President Senator and Trustee.
13. What are your views of transportation and pedestrian safety to,
from and around City College campuses? What, if anything, would
you change, and how would you go about making those changes?
Our campuses need a transportation management plan that includes policies on pedestrian safety, commuting safely and with a small carbon footprint to and from campus. More than half of the student body pre-pandemic commuted to campus by transit. The college should implement policies that de-emphasize traveling to campuses by car and incentivize using green means -- transit, walking, biking, ride sharing -- to access campuses.
14. What is your position of military recruiting on campus?
I originally was against recruiting on campus. I don't know that an anti-recruitment stance considering how the military has changed many of its policies is as productive as it was in the past. I find that communities of color tended to be targeted by military recruitment I also find that twenty years after we successfully removed recruitment from campuses, many students that looked like me, and dropped out of college, and didn't pursue military opportunities, are sometimes unemployed and still unable to care for themselves and their families. Many who pursued the military have returned from it and have had the resources as people of color to take care of themselves and their families. Although not a supporter of how the military impacts much of the world around us, I don't see CCSF creating the opportunities for people that look like me that the military has created for people that look like me. I'm not saying reinstate recruitment. I'm stating how can we also be as successful at improving quality of life for those in poverty at CCSF as the military has done for many people of color.
Due Date: Sat, Sep 3, 11:59 pm.
Please submit by email to cc@sfgreens.org. For more information, call
Barry Hermanson at 415-255-9494. Please return your answers in plain
text (not HTML, PDF, or Word format), so that we can post all
candidates' answers in the same format.
The SF Green Party will invite all candidates who return completed
questionnaires on time to speak and answer questions at our candidate
forum and endorsement meeting (scheduled for Wed, Sep 7 from 6:30 - 9
pm). Please note the earlier start time. We hope to finish all
candidate interviews by around 8. If you need to schedule a
particular time slot, or if you are unable to make the meeting, please
be in touch with us at cc@sfgreens.org. Otherwise, we'll interview
candidates as you arrive. This will be a hybrid meeting, so you may
also talk to us via Zoom if you prefer. Our forum and endorsement
meeting will take place at the Redstone Building, on the third floor
(room TBA). The Redstone is located at 2940 16th Street (between
Mission and South Van Ness, 1 block from 16th St BART).
Completed questionnaires will be posted on our website,
http://sfgreenparty.org.