With the heavy hit to community colleges by the proposed educational budget, students will now see fewer class sections available to them during the spring semester.
“We were told at the Academic Senate meeting on Monday that there will be 150 class sections that will be cut, which is news to me, but we will soon find out more and discuss it,” Lance Widman, political science professor and member of the budget committee, said. “But as far as we know, the decision has been made.”
As of yet, it is unsure if the decisions are final, but others believe the decision has already been made, without room for change.
“When the vice presidents start talking about things and wanting to discuss them, it is typically because the decision has already been made,” Widman said.
Due to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget cuts, community colleges will start seeing their budgets being reduced by $39.8 million.
The plan to be make things easier for students at EC intends to make students take classes at particular times, despite the reduced sections.
“The plan is to get students to take the same classes at different times than they would have normally,” Widman said. “But right now we are going to see much more students scrambling around for fewer amounts of classes.”
The budget has created a short fall in income tax, property tax and sales tax, which are the three main sources of revenue for the college, and 11 percent of all money that is distributed to schools.
The cause of the cuts in classes is due to the decreased budget making it difficult to pay for professors’ salaries.
“We don’t have enough money,” Harold Tyler, director of student development, said. “When you don’t have enough money, you can’t pay teachers, and when you don’t have teachers, you can’t have the class.”
Factors making the budget difficult on students was a growth in enrollement, which was not anticipated.
“Apparently, there was a growth factor, which was higher than was budgeted for,” Widman said. “Now sections with low enrollment will probably be cut.”
Students now have to register earlier in order to keep from struggling to find a section that is not full due to fewer classes being available.
“It is pretty much supply and demand now,” Widman said. “It is going to be just that much more difficult for students. In the fall, the demand among students will be even higher.”
Student fines may also increase, which has the potential to cut into the enrollment growth.
“Whenever they cut, they start looking for ways to make up the revenue. There’s talk that fees will increase to $26 by Jan. 1 and $30 by July 1,” Tyler said. “This will impact enrollment, because the last time we did that, we lost students.”
Administrators will meet with the vice presidents tomorrow in an open meeting, which students are allowed to attend, in the Alondra Room of the Cafeteria at 1 p.m., to finish discussing the budget.
“What we have been asked to describe is the services that will be impacted, then we can figure out what we can and can’t do,” Tyler said.
