ATHENS : Southwest to Restore Some ESL Classes

Protests by Latino students at Los Angeles Southwest Community College have prompted administrators to spare some English as a second language classes that had been placed on the chopping block because of budget constraints.

Faced with a $2.8-million drop in state funding this year, officials at the 5,700-student college had considered reducing ESL classes for the summer session from 17 to two.

But after a massive show of student opposition and a meeting between officials from the college and the Los Angeles Community College District, administrators decided to schedule six ESL classes for the summer term, which begins June 26.

Stanley Viltz, dean of academic affairs at the college, acknowledged that the protest, which involved hundreds of students, prompted the decision. But she cautioned that spending the money for the summer classes would most likely trigger reductions in ESL or other classes in the fall term.

“When one wheel gets oiled, another wheel goes without,” she said.

This year’s tight budget left the college with only $70,000 for the summer session, down from $148,000 the year before. Viltz said the ESL program was not the only department under consideration for cuts. English composition classes, for example, were slated to fall from six to two, and summer accounting and electronics classes were eliminated completely.

But when word of the cuts began circulating on campus earlier this spring, Latino students vowed to fight for ESL, which can help prepare them for regular classes.

Several members of Organizacion Latina Southwest College attended the April 19 meeting of the district’s board of trustees to plead for intervention. About 200 Latino students turned out for a subsequent meeting a week later.

“We can’t let this happen,” said Augustin Duran, a student and Organizacion Latina member.

The proposed cuts came as many of the college’s Latino students had already begun to question the administration’s commitment to their education. Latino students make up 22% of a student body that is three-quarters African American. The college’s nine administrators are black.

Armed with census data and demographic charts, Organizacion Latina submitted a petition in October demanding more bilingual staff members and more full-time ESL instructors.

The students cited district figures through 1992 which showed that Latinos make up less than 7% of teachers and staff at the college. Other district figures from the same year indicated that the ESL department relies on a teaching staff that is 90% part-time while other departments have no more than 60% part-time instructors.

According to the students’ petition, “There is discrimination against Latino students in the English as a second language program since we do not have the same access to the full-time teachers compared with the other students in the college.”

In a Nov. 17 written response, Southwest College President Carolyn Williams said that she and the administration “are very aware of the importance of and the need for more bilingual staff. . . . Each of us is very sensitive and aware of the need for a more diverse staff and will continue to pursue the goal for the college.”

But she cautioned that “the addition of more staff has to be done in compliance with fair and impartial employment practices.”

She also indicated that hiring more full-time ESL instructors, given the college’s limited budget, would trigger further cuts in courses.

Latino students contend that unless action is taken, their numbers will continue to drop from a decade high of 25.5% in 1988. This is especially worrisome, they say, because the neighborhood around the college is nearly 50% Latino.

Some members of the ESL department fear fewer courses this summer will prompt even more students to leave the college.

But Viltz said those fears are misplaced.

“It’s very disconcerting to hear negative comments and complaints that we don’t care because it’s not true,” she said. “I believe the administration is truly committed to any student who sets foot upon the doorstep.”