Community Colleges to Get Help : Education: Under the governor’s proposed budget, the campuses would receive more money to handle an expected influx of students.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to raise fees at state universities would force more students into already crowded community colleges, but also provides enough additional money to accommodate them there, according to some college administrators.

“If the governor’s budget were to prevail--and that’s a big if-- we would be able to fund a growth factor for next year,” said Dianne Van Hook, president of College of the Canyons in Valencia, which last year began limiting the college’s fast-growing enrollment because of a lack of money.

“It certainly is the best budget community colleges have seen in many years,” Van Hook said.

However, some students and educators expressed fears that Wilson’s proposed fee increases of up to 40% would force students already at four-year universities to delay their educations or to drop out of school permanently.

The governor’s proposal would create “a whole new economic class of people who can’t afford to go to college,” said Bruce Najbergier, student government financial director at Cal State Northridge.

At CSUN, students already pay $1,158 a year in fees and have been hit by increases of 10% in each of the last three years, officials said. An increase of 40% would mean fees of $1,621 a year, bringing student costs at CSUN and other schools in the California State University system closer to tuition at theoretically costlier University of California facilities, which runs about $2,000 a year.

“I wish we had the jobs or scholarships that could help” financially strapped students, said Fred Strache, CSUN vice president of student affairs. “Some students are concerned they may have to take a semester off and work to pay for the rest of their educations.”

In the budget proposal released last week, Wilson earmarked $1.66 billion for the CSU system, $127 million less than Cal State trustees requested. In response, CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz said student fees would need to be increased at least 20% to avoid enrollment cutbacks. Wilson proposed up to 40% to help fund a small growth rate in the system.

Cal State trustees will discuss the proposed fee increase at meetings today and Wednesday in Long Beach.

CSUN President James Cleary will not comment on the proposed budget until after the meetings, a university spokeswoman said.

Community colleges fared much better than either UC or CSU campuses under the governor’s plan. Under the proposal, two-year colleges would receive $3.56 billion in local, federal and lottery funds, an increase of $328 million over last year.

The unexpectedly large increase for the state’s 107 community colleges means that “we will be able to find a seat for every legitimate student who wants to come to a community college,” said David Mertes, state chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

Last year, the system found ways to accommodate 100,000 students for whom the state provided no funds, but still had to eliminate more than 5,000 classes and turn away about 100,000 students, he said.

The increased funding for community colleges in Wilson’s proposed budget could reverse that trend, Van Hook said.

“More and more students will continue to come to community colleges and pay much less,” she said. “I think it’s very logical if you can get the first two years for $250 instead of $2,000, you’ll choose the one for $250.”

Community colleges provide only the first two years of a four-year education; students going for bachelor’s degrees must transfer to the UC or CSU systems, or to other four-year schools.

Tom Brundage, vice president of business services at Antelope Valley College, said the budget looks “fairly positive for us. . . . It certainly would make it easier for us to continue to grow.”

Pierce College President Lowell Erickson, however, tempered his optimism. “You have to look at the overall budget,” he said. “Other areas such as health and welfare will suffer.”

“The final package will be hammered out” by state legislators with many other priorities, he pointed out.

However, Erickson said, community colleges must be ready to accept more students who cannot attend a four-year school because of lack of finances or inability to enroll in the classes they need.

“Our top priority is to provide education to students, whether the state is compensating us for that or not,” he said. “Then the rest of the school--maintenance, for example--suffers.”

Mission College President Jack Fujimoto said that even with the state budget increase, community college administrators must carefully plan their programs to include those who otherwise might not acquire an education--new immigrants, those newly out of work and the disabled.

“We really need to focus on the education of young folks who need basic skills,” he said. “Highly motivated students will get through somehow. It’s the lower-achieving youths to whom we need to provide incentive.”

Van Hook said the governor’s budget proposal “acknowledges we can do lower division education just as well as the four-year schools.”

Van Hook, Mertes and other educators said the proposed budget also recognizes the role community colleges must play in the state’s economic recovery. Community college classes to retrain unemployed workers for available jobs are “a key part of the solution to a stable economy,” Van Hook said.