Everyone knows that classes are being cut. What isn’t so obvious is that opportunities are being cut, as well.
Take, for example, the music department. Some sections of piano, guitar and voice have already been cut-especially evening classes. Next semester, the music department expects to sacrifice many beginning classes. These include beginning percussion, beginning strings and beginning woodwinds.
For a young person or adult community member who has “always wanted to learn an instrument,” these are precisely the types of classes that they want to enroll in. Without the availability of beginning courses, any hope of advancement is impossible. Moreover, music majors with aspirations of teaching need these classes to provide the necessary breadth.
Unfortunately, the cuts are deeper than just this. Like with all subject areas, there are many ‘electives’ that are not required for an associate’s degree (for example, Counterpoint and Electronic Music). However, any four-year college will require that an incoming transfer student already has this knowledge base. If the cuts continue as proposed, it will be impossible for El Camino students to get the education required for transferring.
Unfortunately, the problem is deeper still. The cuts are affecting the Center for the Arts. This past fall season, we had the lead from a Tony Award winning musical (Franc D’Ambrosio, The Phantom of the Opera), a Van Cliburn Gold Medalist (Hao-Chen Zhang), and a Grammy Award winner (Aleta Adams) perform. This spring season, we initially had plans for three or more world class performances.
However, those plans were cut to a single performance by the world-famous Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. Even more shocking, there are no such performances scheduled for next year.
A community college has two roles to fill. It must prepare students for future education opportunities and be a standard of excellence in the surrounding community.
Even though the above examples just deal with the music department, there are similar stories to be told all across our campus.
If El Camino College is serious about wanting to serve the community and improve the number of transfer students, it needs to find a way to make sure all transferring students will have the requisite knowledge base.
Furthermore, it needs to continue to provide opportunities for the surrounding neighborhoods.
Cutting classes and opportunities is directly contrary to these end goals. The president needs to fight for these causes.