Dear Faculty, Classified Staff and Administrative Staff Colleagues:
This comes with my sincere best wishes to each one of you for a happy and healthy New Year in 2019. We will shortly plunge ourselves into the hectic work of a new spring semester. Before we do so, we pause for a brief moment to count our many blessings and to remind ourselves of what is most important: our families and friends, our good health and the privilege of serving the students of City College of San Francisco.
Banner 9 Registration System Malfunctions
You are of course aware that the college’s transition from Banner 8 to Banner 9 has been troublesome, to say the very least. We transitioned to Banner 9 in the middle of the academic year only because the old Banner 8 platform would not be supported after December 31, 2018.
I sincerely apologize for this problem and the inconvenience you are experiencing and the stress it is causing. We take full responsibility for fixing this problem and we are on it. Please know that our great IT staff and Vice Chancellor Daman Grewal are working on this problem 24/7 to bring the online student registration system back up and fully functional as quickly as possible.
Our first concern is for our students and their ability to register for the courses they need this spring. We also want to minimize the impact on part-time faculty who are scheduled to teach this spring.
For this reason, Vice Chancellor Dianna Gonzales and Vice Chancellor Tom Boegel have been working closely with AFT 2121 President Jenny Worley and her team to review initiatives to increase enrollment, especially for historically low enrolled classes. Together we are exploring ways we can minimize the financial impact to faculty whose low enrolled classes we re-allocate to high-demand classes, both regular and online.
While we continue to work to fix the registration system, I have instructed the administration as follows:
- Temporary “Plan B” for Students to Register. The college website has posted a message informing students they can register in person at any of seven campus center locations. We will add night and weekend hours if necessary. Right now students can receive immediate assistance by calling the Help Desk directly: 415-239-3711. Email: helpdesk@ccsf.edu The Help Desk is staffed 24/7-365.
- No class cuts or changes until Banner 9 student registration issues are resolved. The issues with Banner 9 have an adverse impact, not just on our ability to manage low enrolled classes, but to increase enrollment where there is clear student demand, such as CityOnline and other courses. Until we are assured the issues affecting student enrollment are resolved, we will not cut classes but continue to work with AFT on this.
- Reminder about health benefits for PT faculty. The collective bargaining agreement provides that part-time faculty who are eligible now for health benefits retain their health benefits through the semester, even if there is a reduction in assigned hours/units in the same semester.
I will continue to keep you informed. In the meantime, I thank you for your helpful input and for your patience.
With sincere thanks,
Dr. Mark Rocha, Chancellor
City College of San Francisco