Glendale Community College’s board previews funding for upcoming year
Glendale Community College’s board of trustees heard a presentation on Tuesday about how Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed state budget could affect students and the school.
The $222.2-billion state budget and a range of educational measures were released earlier this month.
Anthony Culpepper, the college’s executive vice president of administrative services, presented highlights from the budget.
“There still seems to be some, I guess, procrastination in terms of how to address what may or may not become a recession. However, at this particular moment, there is just slowing growth,” Culpepper said.
“No one is really talking about recession as much as they were before, but they are addressing the fact that there appears to be some slow growth in the economy,” he added.
Ongoing funding increases for education were modest, and the budget relies on one-time spending. The overall funding increase is about 3%, or $7.4 billion.
For community colleges statewide, ongoing funding includes $27.8 million for work-based learning, $15.8 million to assist undocumented students and $11.4 million for food pantry programs. One-time funding includes $20.4 million for apprenticeship hours, $10 million to support part-time faculty office hours and $10 million for a program keeping textbooks free of charge to students.
A one-time $15 million would go toward a statewide pilot program targeting current and recent graduates to increase a diverse faculty in community colleges through mentorship and recruitment
Culpepper said Glendale Community College is ahead of the game in that respect because it already has a Faculty Diversity Internship program through its human resources department. It’s a six-month program offering professional development, classroom training and mentorship to students in several fields such as biology, chemistry, English, music and sociology.
The final state budget must be approved by the Legislature and will be updated in May. Glendale Community College is expected to adopt a tentative budget in July.
