City College Celebrates 90th Anniversary With Aerial Photo

The City College of San Francisco is pulling out all the stops for its 90th anniversary.

Dozens of the college’s students, faculty and staff gathered at Rush Stadium on Tuesday to be a part of an aerial drone photo. The photo op is meant to kick off the college’s nine decades of community service. Participants formed the number 90 in front of the field's ram logo for the photo which will be used for marketing alongside their “City @ 90” campaign.

“I just want to help contribute to celebrating our 90th,” said Geisce Ly, the Dean of the Downtown Center & Business, Child Development, Culinary Arts, Fashion & Horticulture. “It's getting folks to come together to do the work behind the scenes and then show up at events, to sort of get the word out.”

The community college opened in 1935. It was created by Archibald Jete Cloud to provide a public institution that could cater to the diverse educational and vocational needs of students in San Francisco.

Though the college has gone through several hardships over the years such as facing accreditation concerns and shuffling through chancellors, members of the college community are excited to celebrate its anniversary.

“Being here as a student and seeing the school develop makes you happy seeing where the school’s going,” said Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Mario Gomez, who graduated in 2010. “Hopefully better days are ahead of us.”

For Financial Aid Office employee Stefany Reyes and student Au, who’s studying economics, being a part of the 90th photo was an exciting experience.

“It’s special that they are recognizing that CCSF is turning 90 and I think it’s a very easy way to bring people together,” Reyes said.

Associate Vice Chancellor of Institutional Advancement & Effectiveness Kristin Charles and Associate Vice Chancellor of Instructional Support Services Tom Boegel felt honored to be a part of the photo shoot, noting how celebratory the occasion was.

“We’ve been here through some of the ups and downs the college has experienced over the last period of time but it’s fun to have this sense of community and the longevity of it,” Boegel said.

The aerial photo was just one of the many anniversary events and appearances by the “City @ 90” team that is coming to the college over the next 18 months. Others included the Multi-Use Building renaming on March 25, an official birthday celebration in August, a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Diego Rivera Theater and a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Student Success Center, with some dates coming soon.

“City College is a pillar,” interim Chancellor Mitchell Bailey said. “It’s one of the core institutions of San Francisco and we’ve been here for 90 years, done lots of amazing things, provided lots of amazing opportunities and to be such an integral part of the city but an actual mirror image and reflection of the city is super special for us so the fact that we’ve been here for 90 years, it’s great. We are going to be here another 90 years and 90 years beyond that.”