Community College District Softens Its Faculty Layoffs

Stung by harsh criticism of recent decisions tied to a major reorganization of personnel and finances, the trustees of the embattled Los Angeles Community College District surprised approximately 250 protesters who came to a board meeting Wednesday by announcing that they have decided to retain 60 out of 142 tenured instructors who received layoff notices this month.

The trustees also announced a high-ranking administrative appointment for the former president of West Los Angeles College, whose removal two weeks ago caused a furor in the Asian-American community.

M. Jack Fujimoto, one of the highest-ranking Asian-American educators in California who served as head of West Los Angeles College for seven years, was named assistant to the chancellor by board President Monroe F. Richman. Although Richman did not comment on what Fujimoto’s new duties will be, he said the board is looking forward to working with Fujimoto “on issues of importance to the community.”

The announcement was hailed as a victory by Fujimoto’s supporters, who had accused the trustees of racism in testimony given at two board meetings and waged an intense lobbying effort on his behalf.

In a statement released by the district, Fujimoto said he accepted the new post “with enthusiasm.” He will be on leave until July 1, when he will begin his new job.

The 60 tenured instructors whose jobs will be saved will be reassigned to teach in other disciplines, district spokesman Norman Schneider said. However, they are retaining their jobs at the expense of another 60 faculty members with less seniority, who will be laid off. A total of 142 tenured faculty will still be dismissed, Schneider said.

However, the board was expected to cancel part of a planned two-week furlough of 2,500 administrative and classified employees that would save the district about $1.4 million. According to Schneider, district officials have decided that the first week of the proposed administrative furlough, scheduled for later this month, is unnecessary because the district received about twice as much state lottery money--about $4.8 million--as it had anticipated. The second week of the proposed furlough is scheduled for late May, but Schneider said it is uncertain if it will be implemented.

In February, the trustees approved faculty layoffs affecting 29 disciplines, from Afro-American Studies to welding. The layoffs were necessitated by a steep drop in enrollments in recent years, which in turn has meant a drop in revenues received from the state. The hardest hit areas were nursing, occupational therapy, optics, dental assisting, physical therapy and nuclear medicine. Staff reductions in those areas are so severe that entire programs will be eliminated on some campuses .

The nursing program at Los Angeles City College, for instance, will be forced to close down and send its 140 students to similar programs at Los Angeles Trade-Technical or East Los Angeles colleges.

Nursing instructors and students showed up in force at the board meeting to defend the program and said closing it will create a hardship for the low-income, predominantly minority enrollees.

“It’s going to set me back,” said Deborah Crawford, 25, who has been in the nursing program for 11 weeks. “I’m going to have to start all over again. So I’ve wasted my time and my money. I’ve spent $500 just trying to get through this program . . . and I live on a very tight budget.”

Community college instructors said the decision to reassign some of the faculty members will not reduce the adverse impact on students and programs that they say will result from the layoffs.

The board “does not really know the consequences of their actions,” said East Los Angeles reading specialist Dave Fisher, one of the 142 who received a layoff notice and who may be one of those reassigned. “The board is just taking me out of my area of expertise and putting me into an area in which I have less expertise. It does not, in the long run, make sense,” although he said he will be grateful to retain his job.

While they say ordering the faculty reductions was distasteful, district officials have defended them, saying that fiscal resources have to be shifted to academic areas where student demand is higher. More courses and instructors in math and English, for instance, will be added.