DON'T DELETE OUR DEGREES! Petition to Grant CCSF Students "Read-Only" Access to Past Courses

Other colleges let students keep their notes for years. Why does CCSF delete ours immediately?

Did you know that the moment your semester ends, you lose access to all your Canvas course materials? Your notes, your quizzes, your instructor’s feedback—GONE.

WHY THIS HURTS CCSF STUDENTS:

1. The "Licensure Gap": Many CCSF programs (Addiction & Recovery, Nursing, EMT, Real Estate ETC.) require high-stakes state board exams. Students often face a 6–18 month gap between coursework and their exam date (e.g., Addiction Counseling students must accrue ~2,000 work hours before testing). Cutting access to critical notes leaves students unprepared for the exams that determine their careers.
2.  The "Prerequisite" Trap: How can you pass Calculus II or Chemistry 102 if you can't review your notes from Part 1?  Students in multi-part sequences rely on notes and formulas from the first semester to succeed in the second. Revoking access breaks this necessary learning chain!
3. Equity & Technical Reality: The administrative suggestion to "download courses" is technically flawed and inequitable. "Exporting" a course creates raw data files that are unusable without Learning Management software.  A full degree generates 10GB–30GB of data. This disproportionately burdens students relying on Chromebooks, library computers, or mobile devices who cannot archive massive file structures.

CCSF students deserve the same resources as their peers across the BAY.

CCSF is an outlier among Bay Area institutions. Unlike CCSF, these colleges do not apply a district-wide "kill switch" to courses.  Our direct neighbors, the San Mateo County Community College District (Skyline, CSM, Cañada), guarantees students access to their educational records for 12 months after their last enrollment. The Peralta Community College District (Berkeley City, Laney) typically allows courses to remain in the standard 'Concluded/Read-Only' state indefinitely (until student accounts deleted- usually after 3–5 years of inactivity).  At the end of the semester, the course vanishes from the Dashboard but can still be accessed from "All Courses > Past Enrollments" menu.

City College of San Francisco deprives us of crucial resources simply because once our semester ends, our access to all Canvas course materials—including notes, quizzes, and instructor feedback—is revoked.  CCSF is unique in that it actively applies a second layer of restriction on top of the "Concluded" state.  The administration applies a setting that says "Restrict students from viewing course after course end date."  The course completely disappears. Even if you go to "All Courses," it is gone! 

This puts CCSF students at a disadvantage!  We are not asking for special treatment; we are asking CCSF to stop actively blocking access to data that is already there."

The solution is remarkably straightforward and costs nothing. It requires the administrative staff at CCSF to merely uncheck a box in the system, providing students with "read-only" access to past courses on Canvas. By doing so, CCSF would align with numerous other educational institutions that recognize the importance of long-term access to educational materials.

This policy change would not only mitigate unnecessary stress for students but also enhance their ability to excel in their professional certifications. We urge CCSF to reconsider the current protocol and allow students the invaluable opportunity to access past course materials indefinitely.

Please join us in advocating for a sensible and equitable solution that supports CCSF students in their academic and professional endeavors. Sign this petition to help us keep access to our educational resources that are pivotal for our success in examinations and beyond. Your support can make a significant difference.