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Most people including fulltime and part-time students will be affected by a 22 percent cut to the Auxiliary Services budget authorized by Dr. Thomas Fallo, president of EC, on Monday.
The decision came after weeks of deliberations by the ASB board, which gave its recommendation regarding the cuts to the president last week.
Programs, such as the Early Start, the Puente and Project Success will also be affected, Harold Tyler, director of student development, said.
However, the Fine Arts Division and Athletics Division are among the ones that will be hurting most, Tyler said.
“This enormous cut will affect the forensics team by having a reduction (anywhere from) thirty-two to thirty-five percent,” Francesca Bishop, director of forensics, said.
The Auxiliary Services balance of EC has been decreasing in the past years and hit a low point of $155,407. As Tyler explained, they can’t go under that or else they would have to declare themselves bankrupt and have more financial issues.
“The district might help (financially), this is not an emergency, but rather a tragic disaster,” Tyler said.
“Within the next month, we will have a plan to keep all the sports and think of places we can take money from, but we must not rely on the district,” Tyler said.
The ASB gets its income from the photo ID sticker sales, athletics, Union advertising sales, fine arts income, bookstore income, district contributions (Pioneer Theater), investments, miscellaneous and for the past ten years it’s been taking money from its reserves to be able to provide innovations for many of these programs or to enhance them, Tyler said.
“If we can get sixty percent of the students to buy the ASB sticker every semester we are home free,” Tyler said.
Among other goals that Tyler has is to be able to keep all the spring sports and spring plays (“Les Miserables”) and have ASB sticker sales go up from $61,000 to $120,000.
“If we want a quality place, we need the money,” Tyler said.
The ASB helps the co-curriculum activities on campus, such as the football team and golf team, forensics team, the Union, Early Start, fine arts and other programs, but after this event, things will be a bit different.
“The quality of the curriculum activities will decrease,” Tyler said.
The Union got a $12,200 cut, which resulted in going from 10 to 8 pages, causing fewer advertising sales, which means less income for the Auxiliary Services, Tyler said.
Cuts mean fewer opportunities for off campus choral groups and instrumental groups, Leslie Back, dean offine arts said.
There are 500 athletes at EC and each must be fulltime; therefore, the college generates (state funding), which provides $3,800 for every full-time student attending, Dr. James Schwartz, dean, said.
It is important to continue to have enrollment for the students; it also provides programs that will enhance their education and help everyone have the same opportunity needed to make a difference in this world, Tyler said.
“The district will help us figure something out within the next month, Tyler said. “October is ground zero.”
