More cuts, fewer classes

Bri

Community colleges, already short on classes, will have to dig deeper after the state announced a $149 million shortfall in projected revenue late February.

“Nothing has been determined to be reduced,” Associate Vice President Bruce Rosky said. “There might be some programs that go through viability, but we’re unsure what those are at this point.”

The $149 million shortfall is dispersed between the different community college districts. Each district divides the amount cut from each school.

The Los Angeles Community College District’s portion was about $15 million.

“Pierce’s share is about $1.5 million, but the district hasn’t said what’s going to happen with that. It hasn’t been passed on yet directly,” Academic Senate President Tom Rosdahl said after attending a District Budget Committee meeting March 6.

The college is divided into three basic areas: academic affairs, student services and administrative services.

“Academic affairs is reduced as much as it possibly can,” Rosdahl said. “The student services area has reduced some, and some more areas will be looked at. Then, administrative services is where you go next.”

The shortfall is a result of the state receiving $100 million revenue. don’t pay the fees. When the fees went up, more students were eligible for the governor’s fee waivers, so less money went to the state,” Rosdahl said. the state allows them, it is called unfunded enrollment. The school does not receive extra funds when the base is exceeded, Rosky said.

“The reason they have to [cut classes] is because the state is giving us less money and the state says ‘you’re going to educate X amount of students,’” Rosdahl said.

Students at Pierce have already been feeling the effects of classes being cut on campus.

“It gets harder to finish [school] the more they cut classes,” business major Rodrigo Limon said. “I take classes at Mission College because of that, and I’m also considering Valley College.”

The state is reducing the amount of students they are expecting the college to teach, classes are the variable cost that the college has. Offering fewer classes will cost the college less money, Rosky said.

“In better times, when there’s growth money, the state student service] areas. The only other place you can reduce is when you go back to the union and ask for salary reductions.”

Pierce College President Kathleen Burke-Kelly developed a task force before the February cuts were announced because of the complicated nature of this year’s budget cuts. Rosky is “There’s a high probability they may have to look at helping solve the problem from salaries,” Rosky said. “I don’t know what that would look like.”

Salaries at Pierce constitute 88 percent of the money for the budget and any cuts from this area would come directly from the Los Angeles Community College District, Rosky said.