Juan Salgado, chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, gave his blessing to the soon-to-open Instituto College in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood when the project was announced last month: “At City Colleges, we embrace the important role community organizations play in connecting talent to economic opportunity,” he said in a statement to Inside Higher Ed.
But now Salgado and the City Colleges board are facing criticism from the Cook County College Teachers Union and some City Colleges faculty, who protested at the City Colleges monthly board meeting on Friday, WBEZ Chicago reports.
Demonstrators were concerned that Instituto's arrival onto the two-year college scene sends the message that the City Colleges can't support Latinx students, and they were upset that Salgado didn't address that message directly.
“We are refuting that [idea],” Tony Johnston, president of the Cook County College Teachers Union, told WBEZ. “We have programs that reach out to these students. Now, could we make them more robust? Do we need more investment in our programs? Certainly. And that’s our main message here.”
In response to the protests, City Colleges issued the following statement: "City Colleges has a track record of supporting our students -- from all neighborhoods and all backgrounds. Since his arrival at City Colleges, as our first Latino chancellor, Chancellor Salgado has worked to promote the quality and value of a City Colleges education in Chicago communities, including with the Latino community. Latino students are our largest demographic and choose City Colleges because of the value we provide to them, their families, and their communities."
Karina Ayala-Bermejo, CEO and president of Instituto del Progreso Latino, the nonprofit behind Instituto College, praised City College's efforts in addressing the needs of immigrant and minority students and voiced her support for the community college system in an email.
"City Colleges of Chicago is doing a tremendous job at serving Latino students," she wrote. "A significant majority of our Instituto College students have taken their prerequisite courses at [City Colleges], and many of our career pathway or lower bridge students will be continuing on at [City Colleges] to pursue their career goals. [City Colleges] offers a flexible, affordable high-quality education and career paths for Latino students at scale, and they've been incredible partners with us in the development of Carreras en Salud [Careers in Health]."
