Cuts will be reviewed before 2003 fall semester
Santa Monica College officials on Thursday voted to axe six academic programs from next year’s roster.
The move, which is part of SMC’s effort to plug an anticipated $8 million shortfall in state allocation, is expected to save the school about $1.25 million.
Eight full-time teachers and about 30 part-time instructors will lose their jobs because of the cuts, which will leave more than 500 students without a major.
The eliminated departments are architecture, geographic information services, public safety, recreation, tourism and hospitality, and transportation technology.
Though severe by all accounts, the cuts are relaxed from what the board approved in March, when it voted to eliminate 10 academic programs.
Officials saved the fashion design and merchandising, interior design and office information systems programs — which were listed in the original cuts — by trimming and consolidating course offerings.
School officials are examining a variety of different plans to help close the remaining $6.75 million deficit, including cutting the number of courses offered by 10 to 30 percent. Thirteen administrators will be assigned to the classroom and the college will lease a building at the Santa Monica Airport to bring in more revenue.
School officials also could offer SMC employees monetary incentives to retire early, thus saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries. The plans will be voted on by the fall.
About 350 people attended Thursday’s special mid-day meeting of the SMC board of trustees at the Madison Campus, located at 11th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard.
More than 80 people addressed the board, urging officials to save the programs and positions by any means possible.
“The students, the community, the staff and the faculty have spoken with one voice,” said Lantz Simpson, president of SMC’s Faculty Association, a teacher union. “That voice has said, ‘Find another way.’”
“The students, the community, the staff and the faculty have spoken with one voice. That voice has said, ‘Find another way.’” — - LANTZ SIMPSON SMC Faculty Association, president
The Faculty Association, along with the Academic Senate, a group of faculty members that oversees academic issues, the Budget Committee, which is made up of teachers, workers, students and administrators, and several student groups proposed an alternative plan that would plug the shortfall in state spending mostly by eliminating certain courses and instituting a wide-reaching series of pay cuts.
But SMC President Piedad Robertson said she couldn’t consider the proposal because it was dependent on a number of unknown variables, including the value of retirement incentives that have not yet been used.
“I can only build (a budget) on reality,” she told the audience, many of whom watched through windows and listened over speakers because the room quickly filled to capacity.
Robertson said the board looked at every available option before deciding on the program cuts. She added that the board acted to impact the least amount of students possible and said the entire scenario will be reviewed when the state’s budget crisis becomes clearer this summer.
Thomas Donner, SMC’s vice president, said the board had to act Thursday because of state-imposed deadlines for announcing lay-offs and program eliminations, which go into effect at the beginning of this year’s fall semester.
He said Thursday’s vote preserves options for the board, which might otherwise be forced to make more severe cuts that impact even more students and staff members.
Before the vote, board members expressed their displeasure with the financial state of SMC and reiterated their commitment to saving whatever programs and positions they could.
“These are tough times,” Chairman Herb Roney said. “And we realize this.”
The change was largely due to improvements in Gov. Gray Davis’ revised budget, which was issued Wednesday. SMC officials had previously anticipated a $15 million cut in state money to the college.
The school’s respiratory therapy department is earmarked to be cut, but will continue to operate until its contract with SMC’s sister school, East Los Angeles College, expires in two years.
Nancy Greenstein, the sole dissenting trustee, said after the vote that she had hoped the board would consider cuts that would be smaller and more spread out.
“I was still interested in pursuing other options,” said Greenstein, whose “no” vote was met with booming applause. “I was hoping that we could continue (the discussion) to look at the state budget situation.” Festival to bring people of all ages together
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 16, 2003. Read the original PDF.