All By Her Lonesome: Ferguson Unopposed In Trustees Race

While eight candidates vie for three Board of Trustees seats, sitting trustee Ruth Ferguson is the only candidate in the Community College Board Partial Term election guaranteeing that she’ll finish the four-year term she was appointed to in January.

She said although there’s no one running against her, she’s “in the midst of the campaign season” for the November ballot. She admits that this makes it “easier to focus on what’s important like outreach and trying to understand how else to make a better City College."

She remembers during the weeks long appointment process, during the questionnaire she wrote that she’s “remarkably boring” and had it affirmed after her review, “they must’ve liked it” she laughs.

Ferguson is re-seeking a seat on the board “to bring stakeholders together and find reasonable, common sense solutions” to issues facing City College.

“Enrollment, to me, is a really interesting issue,” Ferguson said, adding that while decreasing enrollment is a national trend, “at City College it’s been quite dramatic.”

In the time since the Free City program began at City College in 2017, national enrollment in two-year public colleges decreased from 13 to 9%, while City College’s enrollment decreased by almost 36%.

Ferguson said that while Free City “is an incredible program and … a resource that is needed,” the disproportionate decline in City College enrollment suggests that other barriers remain. Free City, the program, has “tangible benefits, it’s not just fluff.” And sometimes, the line between attending college and not is as “small as fees."

For beneficiaries of the program she said that “the board is with you, the Mayor’s office sees the value of City College and the Chancellor is a partner” and they’ll all “keep working together to make sure there’s not big surprises."

Free City's funding isn't guaranteed indefinitely, though. The $20 million parcel tax that helps fund the program comes up for renewal in 2028, on the same year Ferguson's own partial term ends.

Asked what her plan is if voters don't renew it, she didn't entertain the scenario: "Bad news, we have to pass that," she said.

"I believe in San Franciscans, and that they see the value of City College and what it provides." She said she has "full faith that San Franciscans will approve it, and we can't take [it for granted]."

She said the “sharp increase in cost of living in San Francisco” and the “astronomical price of childcare” as potential avenues for research when trying to understand “what’s keeping people from utilizing Free City.”

City College’s arrangement with the City and County of San Francisco over funds generated by Proposition W, a 2016 transfer tax increase, is such that earmarked money can only be used for costs associated with Free City.

Ferguson also points to the college’s history of accreditation issues, especially as they pertain to public confidence. 

She said she spoke with one San Francisco resident that did not consider City College years ago when pursuing her education because “she was afraid that her credits wouldn’t be able to transfer.”

The most serious threat to the college's accreditation was during the 2012 “show cause” order from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, ended in a judicial ruling critical of how the commission handled its case and provided the college with a way forward.

As a public policy analyst, Ferguson’s approach is to seek out “models of schools that have faced decline or … even more severe accreditation issues than the one the college is in currently,” adding, “the Board should be a convener to some degree … for those conversations and that sort of bridge building.”

She credits her community college education with helping to make it possible for her to attend a four-year university and save thousands of dollars in the process.

A former choir singer at her community college, Ferguson said it's still her fondest academic stretch. "I loved it… the clubs," she said. "My best experience in academia has always been my community college experience."

She has since completed a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Washington and a master’s in public policy from University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to applying to the master’s program at Berkeley, Ferguson returned to community college to complete several prerequisite classes. 

“I would not have gotten into my grad program,” she said, “if I hadn’t had access to that sort of affordable education.”

Familiarity in Community College

Community college broke a cycle in her family before it shaped hers.

Ferguson's father arrived in California at 18 and worked as a painter at a slaughterhouse.

He'd had a "difficult childhood … and nearly flunked out of high school," and had been told "he should never try college, that he wouldn't be able to get in."

After graduating from Santa Rosa Junior College and transferring to the University of California, Santa Barbara, he applied to veterinary school.

He's been a veterinarian for more than 30 years.

"He broke a cycle of poverty through community college," Ferguson said.

She moved to the Bay Area in 2020 with her sister during “a crazy time to move.” Her sister, who calls the college’s nursing program “coveted” and hoped to join the post-pandemic cohort and instead ended up taking nursing at University of San Francisco, is now an emergency room nurse.

She feels “so lucky to live here.” She loves that in San Francisco, “you can definitely feel how much people care about each other, support each other."

Ferguson remembers there was a “weird undercurrent” in the politics in her rural hometown in Washington State, which she credits, started her political career by going to city council meetings when she was a teenager.

The small town community where she grew up makes that type of community distinguishable, of which she sees Bernal Heights, District 9. She is a part of the community in plenty a ways, including being a part of District 9 Young Dems.

While gathering her notes for this interview, Ferguson paused to answer a couple of texts: a neighbor, out of town, asking her to grab their package.

By the time she replied, she found out another neighbor had already taken care of it.

"Small-townness," she said, is what draws her to community building.

She community organizes, and admits silent but large influence of money in politics, and “it’s frightening,” she still says that “there’s a lot of good” and hopes to foster understanding between differences.

“My politics is that we follow the same North star – we did that for Free City!” She said that one of the things she wants students to know about the board is that “despite having political differences, we’re all aligned about our commitment to student-success."

In the last five years, she has worked as a field representative for the California State Assembly, conducted a policy analysis for State Senator Dave Cortese, and co-founded Stop Sexual Harassment in Politics (SHIP). 

“There’s a limited scope that I can divulge in as a trustee” doesn’t stop her from being human but she is learning to compartmentalize and is understanding the importance of “checking in with yourself” and what you’re capable of.

All she can do sometimes, she learns, was that she is a voice for the community members. She said she will "make sure that I, as a trustee, am holding the school accountable."

In terms of increasing enrollment, she said this may include “finding meaningful pathways to increase dual enrollment … increase the pipeline between SFUSD and City College.” She also suggested adopting policies that reduce barriers to entry for parents by providing free childcare citing Mission College’s lab school program for enrolled students.

“With meaningful collaboration,” Ferguson said, “the college can be in a much stronger state than it is today.”

She said that although there’s weight in continuity, that the community should remember that “we’re all new here, the Chancellor’s still new but I think very highly of her, I think she’s trying her best with what she’s handed” she said, “Everyone’s still learning.”

She said her job “is to support the institution and part of that is holding them accountable and be a liaison” I can’t make the decisions and, as one trustee because it’s a collective, but she said she can keep the discourse going like nudging the chancellor

Asked whether she's decided to run again in 2028 for a full four-year term, or whether this is a placeholder while she builds a track record, Ferguson said.

"I can't say anything for certain, you never know what the future holds," she said but added that she doesn't intend on going anywhere.