Community Colleges Hit Hard by Budget Woes

Every Friday afternoon, the head of the Ventura County Community College District takes on full secretarial duties.

It’s not that interim Chancellor Bill Studt particularly likes to answer his own phone or file papers. It’s just that, in a district wrestling with multimillion-dollar shortfalls, the budget cuts have reached all the way to the top.

Tuition has increased more than 60%, classes have been cut more than 10%, dozens of faculty and staff positions have been eliminated, and all classified employees, such as secretaries and maintenance workers, have agreed to a shorter work week in order to trim costs.

So on Fridays after 2:30 p.m., Studt’s secretary is off the clock -- and he is on his own.

For Studt, who came aboard after the controversial exit of the district’s previous chancellor and who is leading the system’s three colleges through one of the leanest economic periods anyone can remember, the weekly secretarial stints are the least of his problems.

“Almost everyone in the district has been affected,” Studt said. “Everyone’s taken on more work with less people.”

Similar stories abound at community college districts throughout California. Spurred by the state’s budget crisis, the Legislature approved a $161-million cut in funding to community colleges earlier this year that has forced school administrators and staff to take on more responsibilities and become more creative as they struggle to make do with less.

In the nine-school Los Angeles Community College District, dozens of classes have been eliminated and enrollment is down 5%, to 121,000 students. And more than 130 staff positions have been vacated and remain unfilled, including 15 administrators and 43 faculty members, according to Lynn Winter Gross, a district spokeswoman.

Mission College Vice President of Student Services Jose Luis Ramirez no longer has an associate dean working with him, forcing Ramirez to take on extra duties involving veterans affairs and the college’s Educational Opportunity Program, a support program for students who need additional college preparation.

“We had 10 administrators before the budget crunch really hit us,” said Ed Pardo, a spokesman for the 9,000-student Mission College in Sylmar. “Now we’ve lost three of those administrators, and the ones remaining have so many responsibilities and duties. They’re all swamped.”

But while all community college districts have felt the state budget ax, the Ventura County district has also wrestled with a myriad of administrative and economic troubles over the past three years that continue to mount as money becomes more scarce.

Former Chancellor Philip Westin was forced out of his job last year amid allegations that he abused his expense account, charging the district more than $119,000 for meals, travel and other expenses over a four-year period. The district’s legal fees also skyrocketed under Westin’s administration, hitting an all-time high of $933,000 last year.

In November, the district, already grappling with an $8-million budget deficit, was hit with state penalties of more than $600,000 because it failed to hire enough full-time faculty members. Officials warn that the problem will worsen next fall because a voluntary retirement program -- designed to save money -- will leave the district without an additional 44 full-time positions.

And Ventura College President Larry Calderon, who was hired in 1995, announced last week that he is leaving to assume the top job at Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Since 2002, Ventura College has had to trim about $3 million from its $110-million budget. It has lost 26 full-time faculty members and has gone from 13 administrators to seven, Calderon said. Health insurance costs have risen by more than 20% and more than 200 classes have been cut.

“There are a series of horrible, horrible choices that have to be made. You can’t cut classes ... where do you go next?” Calderon said. “Can we cut utilities, fringe benefits, watering the lawn?

“It’s like being told you are on the Titanic. All you can do is hang on for the ride.”

One of those hanging on is Deputy Chancellor Mike Gregoryk, who will take over as interim president of the college, a position expected to last until June, when officials hope to hire a permanent replacement.

This is on top of the duties Gregoryk has already assumed as associate vice chancellor for student learning, a vacant position that remains unfilled. In addition to his regular workload, he is responsible for reviewing grants and contracts, heading up a study of the governing board’s policy manual and coordinating the district’s accreditation process.

Gregoryk said the district’s cuts have been so deep that Ventura, Moorpark and Oxnard colleges all have vacant dean positions that will not be filled. As a result, assistant deans are handling instructional programs as well as scheduling and student development issues for various departments.

“I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

In a district-wide cost-cutting move, 44 full-time faculty members accepted an early retirement incentive package last spring. Thirty-seven classified employees, managers and supervisors also retired, while the district eliminated 33 additional positions.

The retirements left the district with 370 full-time faculty and 1,120 part-time faculty for 33,400 students, a ration that is unacceptable to state officials. The district is short by 11 full-time faculty members.

“It makes no sense to me in tough financial times,” Chancellor Studt said of the penalties. “It’s kind of a Catch-22. We did what we had to do, based on the financial conditions and funds that come from the state.”

At Moorpark College, the largest of the district’s three campuses, President Eva Conrad said her staff has worked hard to maintain a good learning climate during such troubling times.

“Our No. 1 goal has been to keep the cuts as far away from the students as we can,” Conrad said.

But with $5 million slashed from the college’s $39-million budget, students have seen some changes. Not only are they paying more for classes, with tuition jumping from $11 to $18 a unit, but funding for student employment was reduced by 50% and even small expenses like supplies for science labs, theater classes and athletic programs were not spared.

Approximately 200 classes were scrapped, as were about 30 classes taught at satellite campuses at Simi Valley and Newbury Park high schools, Conrad said.

At the 8,000-student Oxnard College, the number of deans overseeing educational programs has been scaled back from eight three years ago to three, said President Lydia Ledesma-Reese. Her students have been particularly hard-hit by class cuts, because many have inflexible work hours and transportation issues, Ledesma-Reese said.

“We do our best to try and provide enough classes and reach the most population we can, but it’s really impacted our students,” she said.

Still, she said, she’s working to make sure that programs for poor and nontraditional students are spared.

Students like 39-year-old grandmother and Ventura College Student Body President Doreen Juarez already are wary of more budget cuts. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t allay her fears.

“We don’t know where he stands, we don’t know if he’s looking to cut,” Juarez said. “I’m just trying to get to my classes, but at the same time, I don’t know if they’re going to cut the programs that help me.”

That uncertainty runs all the way to the chancellor’s office.

In his 25 years in education, Studt said he has grown almost too accustomed to dealing with state budgets, but nothing has prepared him for this past year’s challenges.

“This is the worst,” he said.

He doesn’t even know whether tuition and fees will go up again next year, because districts do not begin receiving financial information from the state until later in the year.

“If you were trying to run a major business this way, you’d go nuts,” he said. “But it is what it is and we’re not the only ones facing these problems.”