Students and faculty are preparing for the worst as instructional programs and student services are on the cutting block, the list drawn up by a committee of faculty, classified staff and administration. The proposed cuts are scheduled for presentation to the Board of Trustees on February 26, 2003. When you think about it, some of the numbers just don’t add up.
Michael Dencavage, Vice President of Business Services, handed out a proposed list of reductions February 11, 2003 at a District Council meeting. Student services items were combined with Administration line items, but when separated, the list is telling: Twenty-three student service line items are listed, 12 instructional items and only 6 administrative line items.
These item numbers not only seem a bit askew, but the dollar amount of each item was not listed, so the general public cannot determine what each area has been willing to sacrifice in dollar amounts. There was a proposed total savings at the bottom of the list: just over $9 million. The listed items in student services and instruction include the YCYC and Colusa centers, Engineering, part-time food services at Lake Campus, one full time employee in the counseling department and campus police, which may result in increased parking fees to offset expense. In fact, students may see parking fees rise from $20 a semester to as much as $50 next semester, $100 for the academic year.
With so many important programs and services that bring in money for the college, why are there only 6 administrative line items being cut when instruction and student services affect students most? Instructional programs make the money for the college; they are what draw students here. Cut those, and you lose your students. Student services keep students here. Cut those, and you lose what few students you may have been able to attract. A college cannot run without classes or essential student services. Nine or ten fewer administrators, on the other hand, won’t make much of a difference at all.
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