Bay Area

Oakland City Officials Send Letter to Holy Names University: City officials seek collaboration to preserve higher education on campus

As Oakland Leaders who hold the well-being and educational needs of Oakland residents to the highest priority, we respectfully request your collaboration with the City of Oakland to ensure that an educational institution serving the community will exist on the Holy Names University site in the future. Holy Names University provides vital community needs by expanding access to jobs for underserved communities, providing career opportunities within the university itself, and helping remedy the labor shortage for essential workers, including teachers and nurses in Oakland.

Published

1 year ago

March 13, 2023

Oakland Post

r. Kimberly Mayfield, Deputy Mayor, Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, At-Large Oakland Councilmember Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife, District 3, Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, District 4

Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, Deputy Mayor, Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, At-Large Oakland Councilmember Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife, District 3, Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, District 4

By Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, Rebecca Kaplan, Carroll Fife, and Janani Ramachandran

The following letter, which the Post obtained on March 9, was sent to Steven Borg and Sister Cynthia Canning, leaders of Holy Names University in Oakland.

As Oakland Leaders who hold the well-being and educational needs of Oakland residents to the

highest priority, we respectfully request your collaboration with the City of Oakland to ensure that an educational institution serving the community will exist on the Holy Names University site in the future.

Holy Names University provides vital community needs by expanding access to jobs for underserved communities, providing career opportunities within the university itself, and helping remedy the labor shortage for essential workers, including teachers and nurses in Oakland. Not only do students, faculty, and the community of Holy Names enjoy these benefits, but the community overall benefits from all the university provides.

Understanding the unique role Holy Names University plays in Oakland, in 2019, the City authorized the issuance of tax-exempt bond financing at the request of Holy Names University to enable and support these vital public purposes.

Due to our interest in preserving and improving the quality of life for our constituents and preserving the educational use of the campus site, which is its appropriate General Plan designation, we are concerned about the future of Holy Names University, and its announced closure in May of this year.

It is our goal to ensure that an educational institution serving the community will exist on the Holy Names site in the future. We have learned that a variety of stakeholders and other universities have expressed interest in preserving this site for educational purposes and that the lender is ready, willing, and able to support such efforts.

We want to make clear that any efforts to remove resources from Holy Names University’s approved public purpose as a university would be inappropriate. The endowment, the tax-exempt bond approval, the Oakland General Plan designation for the site, and more, are all based on the designated use of the Holy Names campus as an educational institution, and we are prepared and enthusiastic to help ensure this already designated use for the site persists.

It is encouraging to hear that outside stakeholders have expressed interest in maintaining the Holy Names site for higher education. We request your collaboration with us, Preston Hollow Community Capital (PHCC), and other stakeholders, to preserve Holy Name’s current site use for the purposes of higher education.

We are confident that there is a win-win, amicable solution where we can work with you and your lender to find a successor university and absolve HNU of the debt, while providing a better future for the workforce and vital educational programs.

Thank you for letting us know about the breakdown in communication with the lender whom you had chosen to work with for the bond financing. We are happy to help broker a mutual resolution by which the property would be transferred to a new university, and there would be a mutual commitment that any excess proceeds from such sale would be dedicated to an appropriate non- profit entity.

We gladly welcome the opportunity to collaborate with you and hope to connect within the next week to work towards achieving this goal.

Signed:

Dr. Kimberly Mayfield, Deputy Mayor

Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, At-Large Oakland Councilmember Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife, District 3

Oakland Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, District 4

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Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

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Op-Ed Senate Bill 966 Threatens Health Equity in East Bay

My East Bay community is struggling to get by. A proposed State Senate bill would set us back even further. Serving the East Bay community has been my life’s work and my greatest joy. After leaving the Bay Area to complete my seminary, I returned home to found The Community Church in Oakland. From the outset of my time as the church’s pastor, I have been guided by the belief that my service must extend beyond the pulpit, because the health and economic needs of my community are so great. Our church has organized free food banks, COVID-19 testing clinics, and a housing and re-entry program for those suffering from addiction.

Published

1 week ago

July 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Rev. Dr. Lawrence E. VanHook

By Rev. Dr. Lawrence E. VanHook

Special to the Post

My East Bay community is struggling to get by. A proposed State Senate bill would set us back even further.

Serving the East Bay community has been my life’s work and my greatest joy. After leaving the Bay Area to complete my seminary, I returned home to found The Community Church in Oakland.

From the outset of my time as the church’s pastor, I have been guided by the belief that my service must extend beyond the pulpit, because the health and economic needs of my community are so great. Our church has organized free food banks, COVID-19 testing clinics, and a housing and re-entry program for those suffering from addiction.

Through my service, I have seen the challenges that our community members are facing. Oakland, my hometown, has the third-highest rate of violent crime in the state. The local economy is strained. Oakland-based businesses are leaving our community because they’re struggling to get ahead.

Both East and West Oakland has disproportionately high rates of respiratory illness due to heavy air pollution. While our local efforts have brought some aid to those in need, we are also counting on our state elected officials to help us address the systemic health disparities afflicting the community.

Chief among the health concerns of community members is having reliable and affordable access to prescription drugs. Equitable access to medications gives us the peace of mind that we can keep ourselves and our families healthy and safe. Our community should not have to choose between paying rent or purchasing prescriptions.

Unfortunately, rather than taking action to combat soaring prescription drug prices, some California lawmakers are pushing legislation that could raise patient costs at the pharmacy counter.

The Legislature is currently considering SB 966, a bill backed by special interests that would undercut the few tools we have to keep prescription drug costs contained, letting big drug companies increase their prices, profiting on the backs of working families – some of whom already live paycheck to paycheck.

SB 966 would target the fundamental programs through which small businesses, unions, and government health programs are able to offer their employees and members quality and affordable healthcare. Millions of Californians rely on these plans to obtain essential medications at the lowest-possible cost.

The bill would make it illegal for employers and unions to incentivize the administrators of their prescription drug plans to negotiate for the lowest possible cost for prescriptions. Right now, small businesses and unions can choose to pay these administrators more for taking on big drug companies and securing discounts – a choice that will be outlawed under this bill.

As a result, employers will have no leverage to stop big drug companies from setting sky-high prices, disproportionately impacting working families.

As these health costs quickly add up, employers will have little choice but to pass the increases down to their employees. That means California patients will see higher healthcare costs and co-pays.

From my perspective, most concerning is that the bill would exacerbate the health disparities impacting my community and other underserved populations. If SB 966 becomes law, the most vulnerable may be forced to skip prescription doses, stop filling their prescriptions, and avoid essential care.

By rejecting this cash grab by big drug companies, our state elected officials can send a clear message that they stand with the community, patients, and working families.

We cannot afford SB 966.

Rev. Dr. VanHook is the founder and pastor of The Community Church in Oakland and the founder of The Charis House, a re-entry facility for men recovering from alcohol and drug abuse.