Community Celebrates Alan Wong’s Ascension to City College Board President

February 23, 2023 (San Francisco) –

This week on February 22, 2023, friends and supporters of newly elected City College Board President Alan Wong organized a celebration at Best Kept Secret located on Taraval Street in the Sunset District. Wong was elected to the City College’s highest leadership post as Board President last month. He first won election to the City College Board of Trustees in November 2020.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, San Mateo Supervisor David Canepa, and City College Board Vice President Anita Martinez attended the event to celebrate Wong.

During the celebration, Wong recounted how City College had positively impacted his family. “After my father was laid off from his factory job putting together software parts, he enrolled in City College English as a Second Language (ESL) and culinary classes to improve his opportunities to find a job. Those classes enabled him to become a union hotel cook and support me and my family for two decades. The City College classes I took as a teenager contributed to me graduating early from UC San Diego when I was 19-years old. City College made such an enormous difference for my family so that we could live and survive in San Francisco. I’m just one example of the thousands of lives that have been touched by the college.”

At the celebration Wong urged the community to give City College some grace and a fresh start after announcing some special news. “I know that long before I was even elected, City College has had many problems with its fiscal sustainability. For the first time in twenty-five years, this month City College received no negative findings in an annual independent financial audit of our college-wide finances. This good news is the result of the hard work and great sacrifices of our students, faculty, administrators, and staff. It’s time to give City College an opportunity to turn a new page. As City College Board President I will provide City College new leadership and a fresh start.”

Most notably since being elected, Wong has worked on increasing fiscal oversight and sustainability through his role as Chair of the Budget and Audit Committee and saving Cantonese classes at City College. “As Chair of the Budget and Audit Committee, I made changes to City College’s fiscal management policies to strengthen accountability and oversight. The changes include requiring monthly budget updates by the administration to the College Board, requiring City College to budget three-to-five years in advance instead of just one year, requiring regular independent analyses of the college’s finances, and requiring a balanced budget with no deficits be approved each year.”