A California Education in Greed, Bureaucracy

“Colleges’ Budget Crunch Growing” (April 4) describes the budget woes of higher education well. At College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, our 12,000 students have faced cuts in library hours, in tutorial services and in course offerings. Our faculty has received no raises and has seen equipment and supply budgets cut dramatically. But we cannot blame all our woes on the state.

Despite slashing some budget categories by as much as two-thirds, our administrators gave themselves massive raises, some as high as 18%. While no one would deny the impact of cuts necessary in this economy, at the COC they are made worse by administrative greed.

Susan Cornner

Professor of English

Porter Ranch

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Most, if not all, public bureaucracies tend to expand, for whatever reason, as a natural consequence of their existence -- and in cancerous fashion -- until their requirement for additional funding outstrips the available public-funding mechanisms. This is what has been happening at California public colleges and universities for some years now. This “crunch” was inevitable regardless of the amount of public funding made available. Only the timing and the magnitude of the problem would differ.

As a small example of the much larger problem: Does anyone really believe that support of a dog/owner look-alike study (April 4) is an acceptable use of UC San Diego researchers’ time and effort, and thus public money? The private sector has its own boondoggles but avoids the above problem because its existence, in the last analysis, is based on profit.

Jerry Andersen

Pacific Palisades