Campus reacts to the passing of Proposition 30

Students and professors give mixed reviews as debate on Gov. Jerry Brown’s ballot measure continues

David Schub/Roundup dschub.roundupnews@gmail.com

While Californians still sat uncertain of the outcome of Proposition 30 until early Wednesday morning after Election Day, Los Angeles Community College Chancellor Daniel LaVista, had prepared three different PowerPoint presentations to deliver to the Los Angeles Community College District meeting in the Great Hall at Pierce College on Nov. 7.

“One speech I had was if it passed, if it didn’t pass and the other was just what if,” said LaVista while at the podium about to give his presentation.

With Proposition 30 as the main topic of the meeting, LaVista went into detail of the benefits of the passing how it will help community colleges for the future.

“Schools in the district will receive $6.8 to 9 million annually within the next four to seven years which will help approximately 2000 students,” said LaVista.

While the ratification of Proposition 30 has delivered a round of rejoice and hope for California students and faculty alike, the approval last Wednesday left skeptics appear ludicrous when criticizing the plan.

If this proposition had not passed, state lawmakers had in place a strategy that would have put California community college districts and other universities at risk for escalated budget cuts, according to Pierce College President Kathleen Burke-Kelly.

“The passing of Prop 30 is fantastic; it’s going to prevent us from making even deeper cuts,” Burke-Kelly said.

Transfer Center Director and counselor Sunday Salter expressed her initial concern that the school could not handle any more cutbacks, explaining that classes would have to be dropped, along with staff members and student services.

“It’s a big sense of relief that we don’t have to think about cutting more right now. The thought of growing or increasing our services and our courses is a lovely idea, and I certainly hope it does come to pass sooner rather than later, but I don’t know what has to happen to make that pass,” Salter said. For the time being, Salter explained that while Proposition 30 does not give the counseling department any money, it allows Pierce College to “stay as we are.”

“We’re running on bare bones right now,” Salter said. “Even though it already feels uncomfortable, we’re still functioning. People are still able to get some classes—they may not be all the classes they may need, but we’re able to sustain the college.”

Secretary of the Math Department Jonathan Gallay also celebrated the approval of the proposition, hoping it would positively impact the math department’s class schedule.

”I’m glad it passed; we’ll have more money,” Gallay said. “I’m hoping we’ll have a Summer Session—there was some rumor that we won’t. Now that we have the money, perhaps we will and there’ll be less cutbacks on materials since we definitely need that. “

Women’s Volleyball Coach Nabil Mardini said that he was simply glad to see his athletics program continue to run the way it has been, without having to fear his team or his job being cut.

“It’s obviously a sense of relieve to not just the faculty or coaches, but to all of the faculty in the community colleges since the last thing you want to see is them cutting classes and having a professor lose his or her job,” Mardini stated. “Our athletic budget has been slashed already, and just the mere thought that Proposition 30 might not pass was a big red flag in terms of cutting athletics.”

Senior Joel Stone, who wants to major in recreational tourism and management, felt relieved that there would not have to be even more cutbacks in the public school system and that he had read well into the proposal.

“Having classes cut sucks. Being a student, it’s impossible to get classes already, so having more classes cut would have been ridiculous,” Stone said. “I definitely read it and I was ready to vote; I knew how much this would mean to our school system.”

Nevertheless, not all students felt the same; one hesitant view came from 4th year Business Major Kevin Huynh who was still unsure where he stood on the passing of the proposition.

“I feel 50/50 on Prop 30 passing,” Huynh said. “All I know is that I hope it helps us students to finally get better teachers or get more classes, so we don’t have to cram so much all in one classroom. That’s all I’m hoping for.”

However, there were faculty members who were openly displeased with the authorization of Proposition 30, like Textbook Buyer and Campus Violence Response Team Leader Holly Hagan, who felt that although students deserve a good education, Prop 30 is a poorly written law that does not serve the students for one.

“I am so against it,” Hagan said. “Our government is so mismanaged