Students and instructors from City College of San Francisco and De Anza College protested outside the Hinson Campus Center before the California Community College Board of Governors met inside on Monday, Nov. 17.

The protesters called for the reinstatement of the CCSF Board of Trustees, the removal of Special Trustee With Extraordinary Powers Robert Agrella, and they demanded the Board of Governors stop relying on the ACCJC for college accreditation and find a new, fairer agency.

Many protesters described the ACCJC – Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges – as a rogue agency.

“What we’re here for is restoring the Board of Trustees,” CCSF student Mike Sierra said. “It was on the ballot for San Francisco County. We want have people to vote to bring back the Board of Trustees to our school.”

The board was suspended in 2013 after the ACCJC said it would revoke CCSF’s accreditation this year.

The Board of Governors said they installed Special Trustee Agrella in an attempt to stop the school from losing accreditation.

Agrella is not popular among the students and instructors who protested before the Board of Governor’s meeting.

“There’s no transparency, there’s no way of people voting on things,” Sierra said. Everything is being recommended to him by the chancellor and other administrators.”

He said the absence of a local board has led to problems

“There’s been 110 classes cut this semester, there’s issues of our campus police being armed with guns, so there’s a lot of stuff going on and we want that transparency back where we can have a discussion with the board of trustees where people can sit in and listen.”

Protesters also said they were working on getting the school’s accreditation restored and wanted to show the ACCJC all the progress CCSF has made.

“We’re filing for a restoration status,” said Oscar Pena, CCSF Associated Student President, Ocean campus. “What that means is having the ACCJC body come back to our school and look at all the sanctions they gave us to reevaluate how much we’ve improved,”

When the Board of Governors meeting began, the protesters moved inside to attend the meeting.