Jeremiah Cott, a diagnostic medical imaging major, tests the solubility of sodium chloride during his chemistry lab class on Tuesday. | Nancy Chan/Ingleside Light
For City College of San Francisco students pursuing vocational healthcare careers, chemistry courses are worth their credit weight in gold — if they can enroll.
“I’m one of the very few lucky ones who made it,” said 18-year-old nursing major MJ Reyes. “I get that it’s really competitive, but the city and the world in general should strive to make healthcare careers accessible.”
The sheer number of students vying for two introductory chemistry courses required turning away hundreds. The shortage has become a flashpoint between the faculty union and the college administration which is locked in a lawsuit over rehiring faculty members laid off in 2022 — including instructors in the chemistry department — while its accreditation remains uncertain.
“Since I started working [at City College] in 2011, we’ve lost six professors without getting them back. I’m teaching the most sections I ever had,” chemistry professor Mai Hurt said. “Normally we have three sections, and I’m teaching five sections to make up for a part-time instructor who left.”
At least two new full-time chemistry instructors are necessary to meet student demand, according to Hurt and faculty union American Federation of Teachers Local 2121. Calls and emails to the administration were not returned by press time.
“We have no hiring committee, and no one to replace Dr. Fong,” Hurt said, referencing her colleague Raymond Fong who’s retiring this May. “Other colleges like Diablo Valley College had an announcement hiring chemistry professors for October 2025 in August 2024.”
Fong and Hurt took in the former part-time hire’s students this spring. Hurt is teaching 140 students, and denied 102 online add requests.
Last fall, Hurt turned away 200 requests while still teaching an overload of students for the past five years.
“Students are crying to me, trying to add my class. I had one student who tried six times to add and finally got in last semester,” Hurt said. “That’s three years of trying.”
Chemistry Beyond The Classroom
The chemistry course shortage has driven the college community to get involved.
“We’re allowing chemistry to wither. It’s a college health issue and it feels like we’re failing our mission — it’s a labor issue altogether,” English professor and AFT 2121 enrollment team member Elizabeth “Lizzie” Brock said, adding that these two courses are sought after even by her English students every semester.
Brock acknowledged the bottleneck in healthcare and the real need for healthcare professions to be filled — positions that students could help fill if they complete their education.
New hires would contribute to student centered funding formula incentives, money the college receives based on completed courses or programs, Brock said.
“We can’t just save our way to growth,” Brock said. “Students are banging down our doors and we need to respond with a handful of smart hires, which will build the college’s enrollment in the long term.”
Brock isn’t the only one who’s vocal about the necessity of additional chemistry professors. Similar sentiments are echoed in public comments during the college’s Board of Trustees meetings, and one student used her public comment from last October to create a petition.
Reyes, the nursing student, filed a petition to interim Chancellor Mitch Bailey requesting more chemistry instructors to represent others locked out of chemistry courses, collecting 80 signatures to drop off on Feb. 7. Nursing majors were represented the most.
Reyes had early access to the world of healthcare after completing Galileo High School’s Health Academy program. The program provided Reyes with clinical volunteer hours at the San Francisco General Hospital’s trauma department, and connected her with a Hispanic nurse practitioner who inspired her current path.
“Nursing has become extremely competitive and it delays our progress for sure if we’re not included in the class right away,” Reyes said. “It’s such a big situation right now. You can tell people are being severely impacted from being left out. It’s awful, honestly.”
Nancy Chan is a former healthcare employee circling back to doing what she loves — writing. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Sacramento State University.
