March 15, 2021
Dear College Community,
We start this week having entered the Aztec New Year on March 12. This ancient civilization still lives and was celebrated at our Mission Campus through its 14th Mexika New Year ceremony. There are currently almost 2 million speakers of Nahuatl, the original language of the Aztecs.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge that it has been one year since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic. We would have never imagined an entire year of not being able to hug our friends, hold huge celebrations with our relatives, go to the movies or attend concerts without worrying about the consequences. A year later a total of 534K lives have been lost in the USA. Together, we can avoid a 4th surge by wearing masks. Let’s continue to move forward as an institution!
On that note, this an exciting time of year, as both the Associated Students and the Academic Senate will soon be electing new leadership for the 2021-2022 academic year. Both the Associated Students and the Academic Senate will be co-hosting a Meet & Greet, tomorrow March 16th, at 1:00 pm for students and faculty to come together and learn about how to get more involved at CCSF. This is open to all, so please join us and share with other students!
The City and County of San Francisco has engaged in a historic redirection of funding to focus solely on the African American Community. City College of San Francisco is partnering with community-embedded, non-profit agencies and the University of San Francisco to support efforts (City EMT and the Research Institute) that will lessen historical, systemic disparities within the City and County of San Francisco. Through the pursuit of available funding via the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the College’s faculty (and Administrator) expertise is being made available to support the African American Community. In addition to these proposals, the College will also submit five additional proposals to support TechSF, Cannabis, CityBuild Academy, CityBuild Professional and Automotive.
Finally, I urge everyone to visit the virtual book display created by the Library in honor of Women’s History Month.
Have a wonderful week!
Yours sincerely,
Rajen Vurdien, Ph.D.
Interim Chancellor