On Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a plan to begin offering summer classes through historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the city, and the intention of luring at least one of those HBCUs to establish a satellite campus downtown.
Getting more students to replace the workers who no longer populate downtown San Francisco in as large numbers as they did five years ago has been a state goal of Mayor London Breed and others in City Hall. One way they've talked about doing that is bringing a new University of California satellite campus into downtown, something that UC is reportedly considering, as we heard a few weeks back.
But Breed also announced a program Friday called Black 2 San Francisco, shortened to B2SF, which the city's Human Rights Commission is spearheading. The program will begin with some select classes being offered at SF State this summer. But long-term, the city says, the goal is "to launch a satellite campus partnership with several HBCUs, including a physical location and a full suite of academic and professional programming."
"In San Francisco, we are working to build partnerships that strengthen our leadership as a center of education, innovation, and opportunity," Breed says in a statement. "By bringing HBCUs to our city, we can not only create a connection to empower our next generation of leaders, but we can also contribute to the revitalization of our city. I want to thank all of our private sector supporters, as well as USF, UCSF, and SFSU for their partnership in this work and continued commitment to San Francisco’s future."
(USF is going to be providing student housing for the summer program, and UCSF has signed on to partner with HBCUs to expand mental health mentoring, training and internships.)
"After many years of planning, and months of seeding and working to create meaningful partnerships, all the stakeholders are together to explore how we can connect San Francisco to the incredible talent that has historically been cultivated and supported by HBCUs," says Human Rights Commission Executive Director Dr. Sheryl Davis.
A small convention of stakeholders was convened Friday and is meeting as of this reporting at the War Memorial Veterans Building in SF.
No specific buildings or part of downtown or the Financial District have yet been discussed, but the mayor's office says that "Preliminary work has focused on cultivating a network of sponsors and collaborators" for the project.
And no specific HBCUs were mentioned in the announcement, but KTVU had a report that suggested that Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College in Atlanta could be involved, as well as others. Update: KTVU reports, via city reps, that the schools being talked to are Charles R. Drew University, Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, Morris Brown College, Tuskegee University, and the University of the District of Columbia.
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