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Feb 24, 2024

CCSF heat problems fixed at two campuses, remain at one

Following last year’s outrage over lack of heat in dozens of classrooms across three campuses, City College of San Francisco is fixing the boilers on two of its campuses as the semester kicks off,

Following last year’s outrage over lack of heat in dozens of classrooms across three campuses, City College of San Francisco is fixing the boilers on two of its campuses as the semester kicks off, officials confirmed. But slow action and a complex repair process means students attending class in certain buildings at the main Ocean Campus will be left in the cold.

“Another winter of suffering,” said Malaika Finkelstein, a grievance officer for the college’s faculty union, American Federation of Teachers 2121.

Last year, students and staff hit the books in particularly cold classrooms — some as low as 42 degrees — at the Mission and John Adams campuses, and in the arts and science buildings on the main Ocean campus. Teachers began posting signs dictating how cold their classrooms were, and students came to class carrying blankets and wearing gloves, if they hadn’t already dropped out from fear of exacerbating illnesses.

Ocean campus’s heat problems may be more complicated to fix than the Mission sites, which will soon see their heat return. Ocean campus’s system of steam pipes is broken and repeatedly leaks, so the pipes need to be replaced, facilities staff told City College Board of Trustees president Alan Wong. And the system connects through multiple buildings, meaning the project will be an undertaking.

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Contract bids are unlikely to go before the City College Board of Trustees until this fall, said Wong, and the administration confirmed the pipes won’t be “fully replaced” by winter. Costs won’t be determined until a contractor is chosen.

“It’s ridiculous that our students and staff have to be worried about basic conditions, such as heating at our college,” Wong said.

“We understand that it takes time, and it’s difficult,” Finkelstein said. But she wished officials had started the ball rolling last year. Instead, she said, “They haven’t done anything.” Imagining the students using their freezing hands to develop film in the dark room, she added: “It’s unconscionable.”

On a brighter note, Mission and John Adams campuses had their broken boilers replaced, in part thanks to student and staff protests and media coverage. Wong called an emergency meeting last spring, and moved some $2.6 million to replace the boilers and funded 25 new facilities staff.

“If the heat is not on, the heat should be on us,” Wong said.

At Thursday’s board meeting, Chancellor David Martin said in his report that both Mission and John Adams would be finished by “early October.”

Finkelstein is pleased with the news, noting that, even if the boiler repairs are delayed, it should be done before temperatures drop in late November.

“I am hopeful, and I’m very glad,” Finkelestein said. “It’s a year late, but assuming that repairs are on track, this winter will be so much better than last winter.”

Multiple requests for comment to the college’s Office of Facilities and Capital Planning and to Chancellor David Martin have not been answered. However, during the board meeting, he said that “temporary solution work is underway” at Ocean campus’ science and art buildings for the winter, and architects and engineers are starting “centralized heating designs…as [a] long-term solution.”

In addition, Wong said “the college has been working to relocate classes to buildings with reliable heat.”

As he did with the Mission campus in spring, Wong said, “I will take decisive action this coming winter as well, to ensure our students and staff have adequate heating at all our campuses.”

Amid last spring’s freezing classrooms, the college handed out packets of hand warmers and small electric heaters to teachers who requested them. Teachers interviewed last year said the classrooms were like an icebox; another said Ocean campus was particularly brutal compared to Mission, given the west side’s naturally chilly climate.

An attempt by the faculty union the American Federation of Teachers 2121 to turn the heat back on — or allow remote-teaching or alternative classrooms — was rejected by the college during contract negotiations, Finkelstein said.

Research indicates that ideal classroom temperatures are between 68 and 75 degrees during the winter, and 73 and 79 degrees during the summer months; academic performance suffers outside that range. In residential housing, lack of heat constitutes an emergency code violation.

“It’s just insulting,” Finkelstein said.

Meanwhile, all teachers can do is hope for the best and weather it, as they’ve done in semesters past. This year, none of Finkelstein’s classes are in the affected Ocean campus buildings; her class is off campus this year. “I’m glad my students don’t have to freeze, because we’re not at City College. That’s not a statement I’d ever want to make, but that’s the situation,” Finkelstein said.

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REPORTER. Annika Hom is our inequality reporter through our partnership with Report for America. Annika was born and raised in the Bay Area. She previously interned at SF Weekly and the Boston Globe where she focused on local news and immigration. She is a proud Chinese and Filipina American. She has a twin brother that (contrary to soap opera tropes) is not evil.

Follow her on Twitter at @AnnikaHom.