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Uploaded: Saturday, July 25, 2009, 6:16 PM
Updated: Monday, July 27, 2009, 9:46 AM
Options shrink for local college students
As demand increases, Foothill and De Anza must cut their costs
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by Chris Kenrick
Palo Alto Weekly Staff
Just as an increasing number of students line up at their doors, community colleges are scrambling to slash their costs following last week's state budget agreement in Sacramento.
The Foothill-De Anza Community College District must cut $15 million out of its $180 million operating budget, Foothill College President Judy Miner said.
At the same time, student demand on Foothill and De Anza is increasing due to enrollment cutbacks announced by the California State University and University of California systems.
"We're scrambling to figure out ways to meet the demand, which is increasing, at the same time our budget is decreasing," De Anza College President Brian Murphy said.
Murphy said De Anza will eliminate 300 classes, cut 40 positions as well as dozens of part-time faculty, reduce library hours and look for other cuts.
Foothill will phase out French, as it already has phased out German and Italian.
"We're going to have to look at other (small enrollment) departments like that as well, and see how much we can afford to do because the state will only fund us for so many students," Miner said.
"With the limitations at CSU and UC, the pressures to come to community college are larger than they've ever been."
De Anza's enrollment of 25,000 students will probably go down by about 3.5 percent because students will not be able to find the classes they need, Murphy said.
At Foothill, Miner said she expects enrollment to stay flat, at about 19,000.
"I think we'll continue to serve as many students even though we'll have reduced the number of sections. The demand is so huge," Miner said.
Top priority will be given to programs addressing basic skills, local workforce development and the needs of students transferring to four-year colleges, Miner said.
"Because the community colleges are so important for workforce development, individuals who are getting laid off or need to retrain while they're still employed won't necessarily be able to get into the courses that affect their ability to be workers.
"We really hope that our community understands that, with the decrease in resources, we cannot do everything we've always done," Miner said.
"It's really hard for people to understand that. When I look at the e-mails that come in, people are so angry that we've canceled a class -- even when classes may have been popular in the past."
At De Anza, about 50 or 60 part-time faculty will lose their jobs, Murphy said.
"These are locally employed professionals for whom this is a sidebar, or (they are) the so-called 'freeway fliers,' whose livelihood is piecing together part-time work at three or four colleges.
"We're losing some very talented faculty, and we're concerned about that loss," he said.
Miner said the district does expect to receive about $857,000 in federal stimulus funds.
Fees for community college students statewide will increase from $20 to $26 per semester unit and $13 to $17 per quarter unit.
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Posted by Greg, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Jul 25, 2009 at 7:27 pm Arnold says he is sorry that college students' expenses are going up. Somehow he forgot to apologize to all the kids who can no longer go to college, either because they cannot afford the higher fees or because colleges will be accepting fewer students.
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Posted by Campaign watcher, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Jul 25, 2009 at 11:15 pm Dana Tom and Barb Mitchell voted yes on Everyday Math, the most expensive, ridiculous program out there which also costs more money for extra teacher training and parent training. Make your vote count: vote these two out of office when they run again. We need more practical-thinking School Board members.
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Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jul 26, 2009 at 4:30 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online And yet the idiots in Sacramento still oppose ofshore drilling, the revenue from which goe to the educational system. Talk about dogs in the manger!
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Posted by Toady, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Jul 26, 2009 at 8:06 pm This presumes that everyone needs to go to college.
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Posted by Rob, a resident of Woodside, on Jul 26, 2009 at 9:03 pm Legalize and tax marijuana. Get rid of affirmative action, let the state go bankrupt, fire every worthless idiot, get rid of unions and hire efficient smart people.
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Posted by Rob, a resident of Woodside, on Jul 26, 2009 at 9:04 pm State tax on religious entities.
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Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jul 27, 2009 at 6:10 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online I'll accept a tax on religions when they also tax unions and political parties.
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Posted by Davis, a resident of Woodside, on Jul 27, 2009 at 11:07 am pretty obvious from the comments here that education needed more than ever...few understand the budget issues before the state...however, something that is so valuable needs to have an appropriate price...people expect everything to be free?
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Posted by Julius, a resident of the Monroe Park neighborhood, on Jul 27, 2009 at 11:11 am I think it is possible to reduce the cost of many community-college courses by broadcasting lectures on local cable, discussing questions/ideas on a Web forum, and administering proficiency exams over the Web (or hosting exams in a temporarily rented facility). In general, we need to leverage technology to drive down costs across the board.
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Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jul 28, 2009 at 2:29 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online I agree with Julius, and I love his drink.
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Posted by Juanita, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 1, 2009 at 1:14 am I find it interesting that Julius recommends classes broadcast on local cable for community colleges with discussion and testing done on the Web. If this is such a terrific idea, why not start first with U.C. Berkeley and U.C.L.A.?
As a teacher who moved to the Bay Area in 1980 from a state that has historically not supported education (and suffered the consequences), I find it appalling that Californians are not more upset about what is happening to public education because of funding problems. All of us will feel the effects, not only parents, teachers and students. It's sad.
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