FCC’s HS Students Page 5
City Dance Page 11
Rampage
Fresno City College Volume CXXII, Edition 7
Budget: Rough Road Ahead For FCC
May 9, 2012
Former ASG Executive Barred from Campus
President Tony cantu Presents FCC’s budget outlook to staff on May 4.
By Alex Tavlian Rampage Reporter The era of pessimism has begun. That was the message that Fresno City College’s newly appointed president Tony Cantu sent to staffers during a budget briefing on Friday. Grim budget prospects that extend from the State Center Community College District’s board room to the state Capitol will bring on new challenges for students, staff, faculty and administrators heading into a new fiscal and school year. For students, a smaller budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year means one proposal could grow to near certainty: summer school is gone.
While student efforts succeeded in stopping the elimination of summer school for this summer, the chances of repeating the grass roots effort with success is considerably less likely. The current budget projection omits summer school in 2013 for the district’s full-time equivalent student cap. Cantu even pointed out the omission, saying that the current budget discussion included talk of eliminating summer school in 2013. The strategy behind writing off summer school early is twofold. First, it follows the “expect the worst, hope for the best” budgeting model. Second, it allows SCCCD to inform students planning their school schedule for 2012-2013 that there likely won’t
be a summer session, correcting a blunder that occurred during the January mid-year reduction. “The district needs to realize that summer school is an investment in students,” Alonzo said. “The situation for students is going to get worse if we can’t help students move forward.” As Cantu compared the current fiscal year’s budget with the projections for 2012-2013, he openly admitted that the district had budgeting shortcomings given the cuts in January in February. In 2011, the district set aside a deficit fund of $640,000 in preparation for the cuts. The mid-year cuts were approximately $2.5 million, with a large portion coming from the district’s sizeable reserve fund.
photo by
Paul Schlesinger
By Tomas Kassahun & Jordan Russel Rampage Reporter
“As you can see, we were way off,” Cantu said of the meager deficit fund. For staff and faculty, Cantu started by addressing the current makeup of the college’s budget before discussing their pay. The current budget for the college allocates 96% for classified and certified salaries and benefits, totaling more than $66 million, which Cantu pointed toward as being far higher than normal. The current projection includes a six percent salary and benefits concession from permanent staff, equaling to more than $3 million, as part of a $4 million reduction. Lacey Barnes, the Senior Vice President of the California Teachers Federation, said in an email to union members that Cantu’s
See New Budget on page 5
Impeached Legislative Vice President Karlton Brown was confronted by campus police on May 1 after he had entered the Associated Student Government offices. Brown, who is not a student at Fresno City College this semester, entered the executive board office and spoke with current ASG President Pro Tempore Veronica Farwell. According to Farwell, Brown refused to leave the office when she had asked him to do so several times. “I kept telling him ‘You need to leave, you need to go.’ He said, ‘Well, I just wanted to know how everything’s going.’ From there, it was a really quick interaction,” said Farwell. “He basically went into a lot of personal back and forth. And I said ‘You need to get out of here because of all the history you have with the people in this office and all the stuff you’ve done to the people in this office.” Brown was impeached last semester after he had allegedly failed to fulfill his duties as LVP. He had also been alleged to bring a group of students to campus and corner former president protempore Daesha Black. After leaving the ASG office on May 1, Brown was met outside by officers who had told him they had received a call about a disturbance. He was asked to show ID and to explain why he was on campus. Brown says he happened to be on his lunch break from work so he decided to stop by, visit some people and talk about a program known as “Going the Distance.” He also added that he wanted to register for classes. According to Brown, ASG director Sean Henderson, who accompanied the officers, had told him ‘If he ever sees him See Former Executive on page 6