‘93-94 Community College Funds OKd

The Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a $378-million budget for 1993-94, after hours of wrangling over whether to make still deeper cuts in the district’s administration in order to ease the financial crunch at the system’s nine campuses.

The new budget, unanimously approved, is $10.1 million less than last year’s and reflects several moves by the district to tighten its belt because of reduced revenues from Sacramento and shrinking enrollment caused by fee increases and earlier class cuts, said spokesman Fausto Capobianco.

Trustees set aside $5 million from reserves and district office accounts to send to colleges for their spring semester course offerings. The district has already trimmed its class offerings by about 10%; enrollment has slumped by 11% from last year, he said.

There are just over 100,000 students enrolled this semester, which began Aug. 23, compared to 115,477 last year.

Still, the budget reductions will be smaller than anticipated in June when the board passed a tentative spending plan calling for campus cuts of 9.9% and a 10.9% reduction in administrative costs.