by Christina Hernández
City College of San Francisco Mission Campus
In a briefing on the impact of state budget cuts at City College, Interim Chancellor Don Q. Griffin explained Friday, May 9, that the budget deficit cannot be solved by cuts alone.
Interim Chancellor Griffin, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration Peter Goldstein, Associate Vice Chancellor of Governmental Relations Leslie Smith, and Board of Trustees member Rodel E. Rodis were present at the briefing. It took place at 10 a.m. in the new Community Health and Wellness Center at the Phelan Avenue campus.
Griffin said “The thing that was most traumatic for us was that there was a $3 million deficit from last year.”
“Any reduction in classes is really problematic,” he said. However, some classes must be cut as part of the plan to bring to deal with lack of funds. The school must also dip into its emergency reserves, taking out about $1-2 million over the next year. With the natural annual increase in expense, this cannot solve the problem on its own either. There is only about $6 million in the account.
According to Griffin, the plan includes the following: not to hire new faculty to replace faculty members who retire, to eliminate unnecessary consultants; and lastly, the school will take out money from the reserve.
These will not be able to close the gap entirely, and may cause problems for students.
The remaining instructors will need to take over what they can. Class sizes would become larger and can have “demoralizing affects” on students, who may not be able to have the individual contact they may need with teachers. Griffin said this can depend on which classes. As an example, he said it might be more difficult for a student to excel in a larger English class than a larger history class.
There will be a slight cut in classes for this summer semester, predominantly non-credit courses. This fall semester will be very similar to last fall, though there will be more cuts in the spring. Summer 2009 will have a significant amount of classes cut.
However, Griffin said the new college facilities will not feel the effects of the budget crisis as harshly as others.
According to a fact sheet given at the briefing, Prop. A funded the construction of the Student Health Center, Health and Wellness Center, Orfalea Family Center, and new Mission Campus, along with the new site for the Chinatown/Northbeach Campus. The staffing for such projects is planned out about 2 years in advance.
Rodis pointed out that these facilities are an essential part of the college’s future.
Griffin also noted that donations are received graciously, though the majority of people making donations do so in the form of scholarships.
This directly affects individual students but not the school as a whole, so to rely heavily on donations would not be sufficient either.
Next fiscal year, City College of San Francisco is expected to be $8-9 million short. It has been projected that the recession may last 2 years or more.
