Be advised; this is a crucial academic year for Philadelphia’s own community college, CCP.
In the final year of their 2017-2025 Strategic Plan oriented towards increasing enrollment, the graduation rate, and career opportunities, the CCP administration and governance is investing millions in renovations and opening the new City College for Municipal Employees while stonewalling union bargaining, forcing faculty and staff to work with expired contracts since August.
After this academic year, CCP President Dr. Donald Guy Generals is due for his own contract renewal. Dear reader, how about a report card?
Under his command, much of the gathered funding from city, state, and student tuition is funneled towards sustaining his own bloating administrative body, which operates largely isolated from the daily college life of students and faculty. This current administration is committed on paper to creating an inclusive and supportive environment, but are these promises consistently fulfilled? or are they just words crafted to meet the expectations of the mayor and the Board of Trustees, the college’s governance board?
How often do you see members of the administration walking through the halls, visiting classrooms, greeting students at the doors? Save your laughter. An attitude of consistently overlooking students trickles down from leadership into the body and leaches out to any employee even mildly annoyed with students. Ultimately, any isolated system will exist solely to perpetuate itself and not perform its function.
Student life administrators put on their own campus programming using funding usurped from student fees, while the other half of the fees go to their paychecks. They drive up attendance by offering free food at the cost of swiping your school ID. Administrators and administrative staff consistently attend these events more often than students, but the ability to report ID swipes of students merely seeking a quick snack validates their events rather than seeking to genuinely improve the student experience. Does this constitute student engagement?
And what of our amazing extracurriculars? How can diverse voices be included when the official school newspaper has been inactive for the entire first half of the semester and severely underfunded. Likewise, the budget for student governance is still severely restricted, limiting opportunities for equitable student leadership. What has the Student Government Association gotten done in the past several years? The administration expects faculty members to volunteer for advising positions. While they are paid, the time commitment is added on top of classes. How could a teacher be expected to teach four, five, maybe six classes and give their full advising support to a newspaper, student government, or any other high-functioning club? Without a platform for students to publish with editorial independence nor a respectable governing body to represent student interests, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” are just buzzwords.
A thriving student culture of engagement will lead to increased enrollment and retention, yet the administration’s actions are not reflective of their commitment to student engagement and success, rather to maintaining tight control over their own priorities. Their promises directly contradict their greatest revenue source: packing in classrooms with as many students – to as few teachers – as possible.
CCP is meant to be fully funded in equal thirds by the state, the city, and student tuition, however, the city and state fall short of their thirds. Student tuition is the greatest contributor to the revenue for the college, despite a multiple-year freeze on tuition.
Even without a fully funded college, surpluses have swelled in the past years by millions. Still, much of the faculty must operate in a “toxic culture” that requires “volunteered, unpaid work” on top of classes, as some teachers familiar with the matter have stated.
Every four years the union fights for smaller class sizes, more manageable teaching schedules, and better pay for the welfare of our teachers and college employees. In 2019, the union caved without a striking to pressure from the administration to an increase their class load. Now, full-time teachers must teach five classes under contracts. Even teachers who have been with the college for years and could teach four in the fall often opt to overload their schedules for a livable salary.
Numerous adjunct professors teach and have no office to hold office hours for students. Their schedule and pay force them to teach at multiple schools or work at other endeavors to supplement income for their families.
As president of CCP, Dr. Generals’ main priorities are to advocate and fundraise for the college. In testimony months ago, Philadelphia Councilman Isaiah Thomas said to Dr. Generals “We want to be able to pay the people who work at CCP a quality wage. We can’t go back to the mayor and say ‘CCP needs this much money to get rid of the contract dispute’ if you don’t give us that dollar amount.” Instead, the union took its own initiative without his aid in City Hall this summer, securing $5 million for the college’s operating budget.
How are contract disputes still not resolved then?
Union Co-President and Professor Junior Brainard has said “What we want largely reflects what we want for our students,” but the fight need not be endured by the union alone. When students remain oblivious to bargaining in the past, the administration can quietly pressure the union into concessions without a strike that hurt faculty, staff, and students alike. Students and the union together can push for change that does not trickle down from the administration, ensuring that promises of student success and engagement are not just words on paper.
His own salary, appended with a car stipend and housing stipend, far outweighs the now-expired contracts for faculty and staff. Does his office in Mint Building purposefully isolate from daily college life to perpetuate his own corporate way of life?
Dr. Generals has stated his office has an open-door policy. Raise your own critiques to the Man. We suggest funding student-led programs and ending contract disputes, but if he wants his final letter grade from The Independent, he can see me in my office.
With Respect,
M.P. Hassel
Agitator, The Independent
The Independent 
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