With the recent opening of the Social Science Building, students and faculty are excited about the technology that they will be able to use.
Last spring, much of the area in front of the Music Building was restricted, causing students and faculty to take detours and making their attempts at entering the Music Building a challenge.
“The Initial redesign (of the Social Science Building) wasn’t very good, so the faculty and the administration got together and came up with some new ideas and the plans were redesigned,” Gold said.
“I’m very pleased with the new building. The classrooms look great, they’re all modern and they all have the technology you need. The offices are smaller than we’re used to but they’re all modern and up-to-date,” she said.
With classes starting last week, everyone has been able to get to classes a bit easier now, that some of the construction has finished.
All the classrooms are “smart” classrooms with built-in Wi-Fi and also will have document image cameras.
The renovation of the building cost $5.6 million and the funds came from Measure E as well as the state, Tom Fallo, president, said, during the opening ceremony speech of the Social Science Building.
Higdon said that the state reduced the amount of funding to the college by 6.2 percent and raised the student fees from $26 to $36 for the fall semester.
Additional reductions in funding of 2.3 percent and another potential increase in fees to $46 will be known after December 15.
She said a mid-year $10 increase in fees would be a disappointment to many students because campuses would have to collect the fees from students who had already enrolled for the spring semester.
Jeanie Nishime, vice president of Students and Community Advancement, said last year EC was at 19,000 equivalent students and now is at 18,187.
Higdon mentioned that with budget cuts comes what is called “work load reduction,” which means the state funds professors to educate fewer students, which forces the college to reduce the number of course section offerings
“Reduction in course offerings automatically reduces EC’s part time faculty,” she said. “Unfortunately, that is something we must accept.”
Faculty members will face a difficult semester adding any students, Nishime said.
“In terms of faculty, they are not adding students,” she said. “If they do add they are not getting paid for it.”
Tom Fallo, president of EC, reported that three years ago the state budget was at $106 billion and now it is at $86 billion.
“After looking at the budget several times, winter session has been restored, and we will be having it,” Fallo said while speaking to faculty at the Marsee Auditorium. “However, we are not sure about summer and winter session being available for next year.”
While the college continues to budget conservatively, some faculty members like Higdon, worry budget cuts may get worse and affect a lot of students as well as the faculty.
She pointed out that students should contact their local legislators.
“Let the legislators know how important the opportunity to obtain an education at EC is, and ask them to spare community colleges from further cuts,” she said.
Due to the budget cuts, a lot of students have already been directly impacted.
Barbara Budrovich, Writing Center coordinator, said the Writing Center can no longer print anything for students.
Staff is also telling students to use the pay-for-print service instead which is located in the basement of the Schauerman Library.
Unfortunately, students do not always get the classes they need on time, leaving them no choice but to try and add classes.
“It has been ridiculously hard adding classes this semester,” Dania Jesri, biology major, said. “This is the first year where I’ve seen none of the teachers adding any students.”
Jesri said that since teachers aren’t adding any students that she is left going to different colleges in order to find the classes she needs.
“We strive to distance our students from the budget cuts, and it’s highly recommended that students register for classes early to be sure that they get the classes they need,” Higdon said.
