Peralta Community College District Chancellor Tammeil Gilkerson announced Thursday that she will recommend that the Board of Trustees approve a merger between Laney College and Merritt College. Her announcement came in her address during the district’s Flex Day, a staff development day for all Peralta district personnel. 

Gilkerson also announced for the first time publicly that the district will not see any budget cuts for the next two years, earning her an applause from the packed audience.

Gilkerson emphasised that neither Laney nor Merritt would close as a result of the merger, but rather the two campuses would “reunify” as Oakland City College. The colleges were once separate campuses of a single school, but split in 1964 with the formation of the Peralta Junior College District. 

“It keeps our footprint and our areas that we serve,” Gilkerson said. “The idea here is really thinking through what would it look like to prune, to grow three tremendous colleges that really could flourish in new ways.”

The merge is one of several recommendations Gilkerson plans to make to the board, as part of a larger effort to create a more efficient district. She expressed her desire to build an environment where colleges “no longer compete with each other,” and to eliminate duplicate services.

The chancellor said that it could take several years for her recommendations, including the merge, to be implemented. 

According to Peralta’s deputy chancellor and chief operating officer, Greg Nelson, the district must invest time into “work[ing] through” accreditation for the proposed college and planning around the state’s funding formula for community colleges.

Nelson said that by combining the two student populations and cutting “duplicate administration,” the proposed Oakland City College campuses will be able to receive more funding and resources than they presently do as individual colleges.

What do people think?

The executive assistant of student services at Merritt College, Jamila Saleh, said that Gilkerson’s recommendation to combine the colleges into one school was a “hard decision that the chancellor had to make,” but believes it to be a positive change. Saleh says that she believes Gilkerson took the opportunity to listen to her constituency “to make an informed decision.”

“It’s a lot of hard work being [a] classified employee,” Saleh said. ”If she’s trying to avoid duplicate services, I’m all for it.”

Laney College President Becky Opsata said that community colleges with two separate campuses aren’t out of the ordinary, citing Diablo Valley College as an example. DVC is one college with two campuses – one in Pleasant Hill and one in San Ramon.

“It’s a model that other community colleges do, so I think we’ll be able to figure it out,” Opsata said.

How did we get here?

Gilkerson and Nelson highlighted Peralta’s financial woes in a presentation to the Board of Trustees in Oct. 2024. Since then, district leadership has sought input from Peralta’s constituency groups over how to make the district more efficient, given years of cuts and an upcoming budget freeze brought on by a shift in the state’s funding formula.

Representative members of Peralta’s faculty, classified employees and administrators held a meeting in Jan. to address the district’s financial crisis. The discussion explored the possibility of personnel cuts and reducing the district’s operations.

On Feb. 25, the Board of Trustees voted to cut 68 employee positions. Faculty and classified employees regularly protested the staffing cuts at district board meetings throughout the spring semester. However, Gilkerson explained in her address that many employees who were poised to be laid off were subsequently transferred into other positions and retained employment. 

In an interview with The Citizen, Gilkerson lamented the district’s history of budget instability.

“You can’t continue to […] take multi-million dollar cuts each year and expect that you’re going to be able to really serve students in the community and provide employees with what they need,” Gilkerson said.

Where do we go next?

According to the findings from Gilkerson’s presentation, Peralta has made strides to modernize its systems and build financial stability. Yet the district still finds itself in the midst of what will be a multi-year effort to mend its financial troubles.

During the Chancellor’s address, Gilkerson compared her recommendations to the act of pruning, or removing parts from a plant in order to maintain its general health. She said that despite the district’s difficulties, reductions could represent “an investment in future growth.”

“It’s uncomfortable, it can feel like a sense of loss,” Gilkerson said. “But it’s also afterwards […] a clearer structure, healthier growth, more bloom, stronger roots. There really is an opportunity to grow here.”

Deputy Chancellor Nelson said that the process of merging Laney and Merritt will be long and deliberate.

“It’s not gonna happen tomorrow,” Nelson said. “But just like this past year, we worked our way […] toward where we are now, with a lot of work and effort to save additional resources.”

“I firmly believe over the next two years, we can certainly [put] the district in a better position for the following […] five years,” he said.