SMC faces budget deadline
Teachers and students at Santa Monica College accused school officials this week of being too rash in cutting entire programs and faculty positions from next year’s roster.
They want the school administration to consider an alternative plan that would plug the anticipated $15 million shortfall in state spending mostly by eliminating certain courses and instituting a series of pay cuts.
About 85 percent of SMC’s $115 million budget comes from the state.
The SMC Board of Trustees will vote May 15 on whether to finalize a March proposal to eliminate 10 academic programs, lay-off 13 full-time teachers and reassign about 13 administrators to the classroom.
About 150 students, faculty and community members converged on Monday’s meeting of the Board of Trustees. More than 70 people spoke to the board, lambasting members for considering cutting full-time faculty positions that would leave nearly 2,000 students without their courses of study.
“Once a program is eliminated, it will never come back,” said Michael Schwartz, a substitute high school teacher and member of Save Our Schools, an organization that formed in response to the budget discussions. “You can’t save a program by eliminating it.”
The student group has thrown its weight behind a joint recommendation by the Academic Senate, a group of faculty members that oversees academic issues, the Faculty Association, the union that represents teachers, and the Budget Committee, which is made up of teachers, workers, students and administrators.
The alternative plan outlines different courses of action for the best-, mid-and worst-case budget scenarios that add up to a total of nearly $14 million in savings and an additional $4 million in accrued reserve funds.
Most of the savings under the best-case scenario come from pay cuts and early retirement incentives. Under the mid-case scenario, 10 percent of classes would be cut along with weekend classes and some counseling. The worst-case scenario calls for an additional 20 percent cut in classes and further cuts in counseling.
But Gordon Dossett, president of the Academic Senate, said school officials don’t seem to be interested in the proposal.
Dossett, who presented the recommendations to the board Monday night, said nobody in the school’s administration has acted on the proposals, which were presented to SMC president Piedad Robertson last week.
“We’ve come up with proposals that continue people’s work here, continue the programs, so that students can continue on with their education and we’ve yet to hear specific criticisms of what is wrong with these three scenarios,” he said.
“We’ve come up with proposals that continue people’s work here, continue the programs...” — — GORDON DOSSETT President of the Academic Senate
“If it’s such a good idea,” he added. “And the board said, ‘Yes, it’s a good idea,’ then the board could have acted yesterday.
“Instead they said, ‘Thank you.’ Period.”
Herb Roney, the president of the Board of Trustees, said the board is currently considering a wide range of options to deal with the budget crisis, but added it is unrealistic to think that no positions or programs will be lost in the process.
64D,“The bottom line is, I think, yes, we will eliminate some of those programs,” he said. “Is the door closed? No. Is there discussion taking place? Sure.
“People think nothing is being looked at,” he added. “Everything is being looked at. The board is still looking at every proposal, suggestion, everything.”
Roney dismissed the charge by some students and faculty that the board is a rubber stamp for an overzealous administration set on cutting programs primarily geared towards working class students and low-income workers. They accuse SMC administrators of being more concerned about establishing the college as a school for the elite and trying to position it to be a four-year university.
“It’s a matter of money,” he said. “By our discussions and working with Sacramento it appears that we will have a very difficult scenario to deal with, and it’s just a very unfortunate situation.”
While students, teachers and other school workers wait for the final word on lay-offs, a separate hearing that challenges the legality of the firings is expected to be resolved May 7.
William Hogan, faculty leader for the SMC Architecture Program, said his future at the school is up in the air. Hogan, who is pushing for the Academic Senate’s recommendations, said he faces an uphill battle.
“The administration has made up its mind that these program discontinuations are going to happen come hell or high water,” he said. “The faculty is upset. The classified employees are upset. The students are upset. And I think once the larger community in Santa Monica finds out what’s going on, they’re going to be upset too.”
“The administration has made up its mind that these program discontinuations are going to happen come hell or high water.” — — WILLIAM HOGAN Professor of architecture
Hogan said the current budget talks have less to do with money than they do with power.
“This was done in the dark of night, behind closed doors and was really railroaded through,” he said, adding that he didn’t know his position was in jeopardy until three days before the proposal was passed. “I believe this is a move to intimidate tenured faculty and classified employees to say ‘You might be next and you better watch out and listen to what we say.’”
But board members and administrators blame the state. They say all of California’s 208 community colleges are being asked to shoulder their part of an estimated $161 million cut in funding for next year. Though only a handful are eliminating full-time positions to deal with that shortfall, Roney said the board must keep all its options open.
“It is very difficult,” Roney said. “The only reason we’re here is because we have a real sense of dedication. We love this college, its staff and what it’s done. We are caught in the middle. It’s just unbelievable.”
- William Hogan, professor of architecture
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 7, 2003. Read the original PDF.