Valley College Calls for Halt to Sharing Its District Funds : Education: Money from the Van Nuys campus has been used to help the system’s smaller schools. Students and faculty say they have made too many sacrifices.

A cursory look at Los Angeles Community College District financial records shows that Valley College in Van Nuys was over budget by more than $160,000 last year.

But closer examination reveals that about $1.6 million generated by Valley was used to support less profitable schools in the nine-campus district.

“We’ve given up a million dollars or more year after year,” complained one disgruntled faculty member.

In the 1991-92 school year, Valley generated $23.7 million in state funds, based on the number of students it serves. But the college was allocated $22.1 million by the district, $1.6 million less than it earned.

For about 10 years, the college has contributed between $1 million and $2 million annually to the district as a whole, said Valley President Mary E. Lee.

As a result, the college has sacrificed student services, classified and counseling staffs, capital improvements and overall maintenance to provide instructional programs, she said. But within the last two years, instructional programs, too, have begun to feel the effects of the financial crunch, Lee said.

After “making do with less” for so long, she said, Valley can no longer cope with its problems without additional funds.

“Valley has always been thought of as the rich school that could take care of itself,” Lee said. “That no longer is true.”

Also within the last decade or so, she said, Valley has had to change from a liberal arts college to a school that offers vocational courses and programs for minority students that normally are augmented by additional district funds--funds Valley did not receive.

District records show that in 1991-92, Valley was the only school in the district that did not receive funding for all of its students.

In addition, the district spends less per student at Valley--$2,700 a year--than it does at other community colleges, said Faculty President Jack Sterk. “At Mission, it’s $4,400 per student. The average districtwide is $3,400. The state average is $3,100.”

In response, Valley’s administration, faculty and students have asked the district’s board of trustees to give the college $750,000 this year and to add $1 million to its budget for 1992-1993 to “allow us to begin to recover from the years of under-funding.”

But for 1992-93, district administrators have proposed that Valley contribute to other schools another $1.6 million of the funds it will generate. The other two large colleges in the district, Pierce College in Woodland Hills and Los Angeles City College, are scheduled to contribute $484,000 and $672,000, respectively.

Under the proposal, the extra funds drawn from Valley, Pierce and LACC will augment the other six schools’ budgets between $109,000 and $790,000.

Confronted by a contingent of 200 college students, faculty members and administrators at this month’s meeting, trustees pledged to examine the school’s funding. They will discuss Valley’s budget at a meeting in March.

“It’s the cumulative effect,” Lee said, explaining why the college is challenging the funding inequity this year. She has been president for 11 years. “We just have to act now.”

“Based on the number of students, Valley is tremendously underfunded,” Alaine Jelsvik, former student body president, recently told the district board of trustees. “You have demanded sacrifice after sacrifice and we have delivered. But now, we are angry.”

Valley College was established near Van Nuys High School in 1949 with 440 students and 23 faculty members. When the campus moved to its present site at 5800 Fulton Ave. in 1951, it had 1,004 students and a faculty of 55.

Now, Valley educates almost 20,000 students and has 260 full-time and 330 part-time teachers. Although 20 years ago the vast majority of students were Anglo, 46% of today’s students are minorities.

Over the years, some facilities have fallen into disrepair and others were never upgraded, partly because of funding inequities and partly because of shrinking state educational budgets in general, college administrators say.

Since 1959, 20 permanent buildings have been completed, but none have been built in the last two decades. Seventy-eight bungalows used for classrooms date back to World War II.

“The last new building was the campus center, and it’s 20 years old,” Lee said last week during a tour of the 105-acre campus. “Some of the older buildings haven’t been painted for 30 years.”

During the recent storms, 25 leaks were counted in the roof of the campus library, where some books and card catalogues were covered with plastic sheets.

“There was water all over,” librarian Susan Garbarino said. “We’re lucky the books weren’t ruined. It would take at least $5 million to replace them. Some couldn’t be replaced at all.”

One section of the library was closed off altogether. During the heaviest rains, large trash cans were used to catch water that was pouring “like a waterfall,” said Mary Ann Breckell, vice president of administration.

In addition, paint is peeling in classrooms and on buildings. The gym floor is thin and cracking. Tiles periodically fall from classroom ceilings. Much of the instructional equipment is faulty or outdated, a common complaint at other older colleges in the district.

The campus has few air-conditioned buildings, resulting in poor ventilation in chemistry labs and storage rooms, raising fears about workers’ and students’ safety. With the fall semester starting in August for the first time this year, students and faculty are wondering how they will cope with 100 plus-degree heat.

In the area of instruction, hundreds of classes have been cut, said Tyree Wieder, vice president for academic affairs.

Students are unable to obtain classes needed to graduate from Valley or to transfer to a four-year university. Many are enrolled at two or even three colleges in an effort to finish their educations, Wieder said.

“I’m having to take physics at Pierce,” student John Doherty said. “I’m lucky I drive a car. Many students don’t.”

Sterk said that in 1971 the college offered 2,800 classes. Now, it offers only 1,300, but has roughly the same number of students, he said.

Shannon Stack, who heads the history department, said she has seen classes in that department drop from 137 in 1980 to 66 this spring. Among those dropped were a women’s study course and a non-Western history class that is a requirement for transferring to most four-year colleges.

Also, class sizes are larger and the number of teachers has been reduced. The much-in-demand English as a second language classes have 55 to 60 people in them.

Sterk said he has 128 students in one of his speech classes. “There aren’t enough chairs,” he said. “Sometimes, students have to sit on the floor.”

Marvin Zuckerman, chairman of the English department, said his department has lost 15 professors since 1985 through attrition. “Only five have been replaced with new hires. Over half of our courses are being taught by part-time instructors.”

Other professors complained about equipment not being repaired or replaced.

John Maddox, a history professor, said there are so many broken chairs in his classroom that he has to tell students to be careful when they sit down. “It’s become a safety issue,” he said.

Ed Samuels, a biology professor, said equipment in his tutorial lab dates back to 1978. “It has served its mission.”

The college was awarded a $200,000 grant to replace some science equipment, but was unable to accept the money because it could not come up with matching funds. “We’re not able to take advantage of the technology that exists,” Samuels said.

Trustees will take up Valley’s request to enlarge its budget at their March 11 meeting. After a contingent of 200 Valley College administrators, faculty members and students stated the college’s case at the board’s Feb. 12 meeting, trustees said they were surprised by conditions at Valley.

Trustee Lindsay Conner noted that small colleges are always going to generate less money than they need and that the larger schools need to make up the difference.

“But you’re saying Valley can’t do the job now, and that’s a crucial argument,” he told the Valley delegation.

Conner said that educators need to ensure that community colleges receive the additional 10.1% in funds proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson in next year’s budget. “Then, we can decide if the pie is being divided fairly. But I don’t think that’s the right argument. When I see the flooded libraries, the . . . closed classes, that’s the right argument.”

Some trustees attributed the district’s lack of attention to Valley College to the efficiency of Lee and her staff. But all pledged to examine Valley’s problems and consider the request for additional funds.

“I was appalled at the plastic on top of the books,” Trustee Patrick Owens said.

Lee said the additional $750,000 Valley has requested for this year would be used for urgent maintenance work and to prepare drawings for an air-conditioning system.

Among other things, immediate needs include rebuilding the chemistry storeroom, replacing the gym floor, updating computer and lab equipment, painting classrooms and repairing roofs, such as the library’s, she said.

Providing Valley with more of the money it generates won’t solve all of the college’s problems. It would still need additional funding to modernize the life sciences building, replace temporary bungalows with permanent classroom buildings, complete the campus center building and construct a cultural arts center and a warehouse, Lee said.

Despite its age, Valley College “is an incomplete campus,” she added.