Budget cuts continue to hit the San Jose Evergreen Community College District hard. The district recently went through a second round of layoffs, removing 15 full-time employees, and has cancelled about 5 percent of classes in each department.
“I tried to cut classes in areas where students had other options,” said Leandra Martin, the Math and Science Department dean.
Former SJCC President Michael Burke said the class cancellations were decided by the deans of each department.
“It is very hard for me to cut any course, but we need to live within our budget. A chemistry, biology, physical science and math courses were cut from the spring schedule,” Martin said. “Cutting these classes decreased the load of adjunct faculty.”
The number of people laid off doesn’t include an additional group of adjunct faculty members who will no longer teach because of the class cancellations.
Burke described the process behind the cuts in the Language Arts Department, of which he served as a temporary dean.
“We looked at the courses, which had multiple sections in the same hour, courses that had historically low enrollment,” he said. “Friday classes, for example, aren’t always robustly enrolled.”
Any cuts made to the budget will affect someone one way or another. Whether it is the students, staff or faculty, someone will be affected.
“We are trying to walk a fine line. Cutting our schedule in half would be an easier way to save money,” Burke said. “Our board doesn’t want to do that. They want us to find as little damage to the schedule as we possibly can and still stay within our budget.”
According to the San Jose Mercury News, “Budget cuts have forced the cancellation of 18 classes at Evergreen Valley College and 20 classes at San Jose City College, such as air conditioning and machine technology. Funding has been cut in half for its Disabled Students Program. Also cut are programs for low-income students and working parents. More cuts are planned for next year.”
In a campus forum meeting on the college budget on Dec. 9, Burke discussed many cuts that happened for the 2009-2010 school year, including categorical reductions. Burke said EOP&S (Extended Opportunity Program & Services) was cut by 33 percent, DSP&S (Disabled Students Program & Services) was cut by 48 percent, CARE (Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education) was cut by 34 percent and CalWorks (California Work Opportunities and Responsibilities to Kids) was cut by 39 percent.
There are more projected cuts for these programs for 2010/2011. The projected cuts are as follow: EOP&S cut by 9 percent, DSP&S cut by 12 percent, CARE cut by 9 percent and CalWorks cut by 9 percent, Burke said.