The state budget crisis has left Mt. SAC with the task of keeping its promise of excellence to students while making cuts to sustain the school through the recession.
“This is my 36th year working in public education and this is the worst and the longest state budget crisis that I’ve experienced,” said Linda Baldwin, associate vice president of fiscal services.
In his letter to the faculty regarding the budget for the next fiscal year, Mt. SAC President Bill Scroggins explained that the state legislature voted to increase student fees in an effort to generate revenue, a total of $110 million in increased fees throughout the California Community College system.
According to Baldwin, while the fee increases may generate revenue for California, it does not help with Mt. SAC’s financial and budget restrictions.
“When they raise those enrollment fees, we get to keep those enrollment fees, but then they [the state] pay us less apportionment. So we get no more money. This saves the state money. We don’t get one dime more,” she said.
As a result of the reduced funding from the state, the school is continuing to cut classes.
“Just this fall alone we’ve cut an additional 533 sections of classes,” said Jennifer Galbraith, mathematics professor and president of the Mt. SAC Faculty Association.
“It’s the way that the funding mechanism works for the community college,” Baldwin said. “Basically they [the state] pay you based on a certain cap. Anything you generate over that they’re not going to pay you unless there’s a growth augmentation.
He added, “For [the] 2011-12 fiscal year we’re getting no new growth increment. It’s a complex funding thing but we’re not cutting classes because we want to, we’re cutting them because we can’t afford to provide them for free.”
Baldwin also warned that if the state revenue does not meet the amount projected in the state budget, the state might enact “trigger cuts” by Dec. 15, which can result in more cuts in classes and another fee increases from $36 per unit to $46 come spring semester. She also said that the other major downside to these cuts is that it will be harder for students to get classes.
“It’s terrible the way this is affecting students,” Galbraith said. “In a time when the state should be focusing on reeducating or helping them work in the future and getting a work force out there they’re actually making it harder. I feel really bad for the students.”
Baldwin said, “The problem is that the state’s been running on a deficit for so many years they have never caught up. Now they’re trying to catch up by severe cuts which is creating havoc with us and other agencies.”
Mt. SAC has taken steps to mitigate the effects of the cuts and is continuing to do so. Baldwin said that the financial decisions are made through a campus wide effort through the assistance of the President’s Advisory Task Force (PATF) on Fiscal Planning and the President’s Cabinet to help determine what classes or programs get cut.
She also said that there are students on the budget committee and that the school encourages other students to participate on the committee, so that they can have a voice in the school’s financial planning.
According to Baldwin, Mt. SAC has continued to provide a number of services for students including EOPS and Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSP&S) in spite of the financial restraints, whereas many other schools have cut their programs.
“Even though the state cut the budgets in half we’re still providing those services and the college is augmenting those from general fund money. I think that shows the dedication that Mt. SAC has to helping students,” said Baldwin.
The budget crisis has also impacted the faculty on campus.
“Every section we cut, we displace an adjunct faculty member,” said Jim Jenkins, 56, dean of humanities and social sciences. “[These] are technically temporary at will, employees who sometimes teach at three or four or sometimes five different schools across Southern California, driving in between, trying to make ends meet.”
According to Galbraith, the crisis has also put a restriction on the number of full time faculty. “We had 13 retirees just at the end of last year—those probably will not all be replaced so we’re not going to be hiring as many as we’re losing,” she said.
For the full time faculty, the crisis has presented the challenge of providing quality teaching amidst personal difficulties with the recession. The Faculty Association did negotiate a 2 percent salary increase at the last Board of Trustees meeting held on Aug. 24, the first increase in four years.
According to Galbraith, “Our purchasing power has decreased—it would’ve been up over 7 percent-and we’ve only had a 2 percent in the last four years. So what I make in my actual spending ability has actually decreased.”
In spite of the salary increase, the faculty has also had to deal with cuts to their benefits.
“Three years ago we had our benefits cut and the contribution went down from the district contributing $12,000 per faculty member to $9,745,” said Galbraith. Full-time teachers have also had to take on a bigger workload to accommodate the growing number of students that are enrolling in community colleges, Galbraith said.
“When an economy gets bad, this is actually one of the places that people tend to seek out,” said Jenkins. “Whether they’re trying to get trained to get back into the workforce or they’re trying to expand their opportunities within their jobs or people who are laid off—for a lot of different reasons.”
Jenkins said that these last round of cuts has forced the college to reevaluate its capabilities and what it can do for students.
“In an overall spiritual sense, this is a place that people can come and be educated and they don’t have to spend a lot of money to do it,” he said. “It’s a gateway to four year schools, it’s a gateway to new jobs and things like that but now that resources are getting scarce, we’re actually having to choose what populations we’re able to serve.”
Jenkins said that instead of being open to anyone who wants to attend, the state and federal government’s limited definition of success unfortunately, does not cover the spectrum of students that attend Mt. SAC.
Even after the economy improves, Jenkins said he thinks Mt. SAC may still be feeling the effects of the budget cuts. He said, “There is a very strong belief by most people in this system that when and if this is over, the community college system will have changed significantly.”
- Rich Yap
Staff Writer
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