VOLUME 78, ISSUE 24 | WWW.ELACCAMPUSNEWS.COM | WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2023 | SINGLE COPY FREE - ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
Vice President reveals budget ending in deficits BY JUAN CALVILLO
Deficit amounts after district funding and college expenditure
Staff Writer East Los Angeles College will continue its work of welcoming back its student population, but will do so while working in a deficit in what is the 2023-2024 and 20242025 school years. ELAC administrative members went over the college’s current situation from what is working, how the budget is fairing and what students can expect in the future during the school’s State of the College event. Michael Pascual, Administrative Services vice president, said the budget for the college has two possible outcomes. Both of these outcomes end in a deficit. The revised May budget from the Governor’s office cuts the COVID19 block grant from Prop. 98 from $650 million dollars to about half that. Pascual said a lot of these funds have already been distributed. He said how the reduction of money that has already been distributed will be accomplished is a conversation that is ongoing. Additionally, maintenance projects that have been deferred were also funded by Prop. 98, these monies have been reduced as well. Pascual said the money, very much like the COVID-19 funds, for these deferred projects has all almost already been distributed, and the state will update how a buy-back of these funds will work. Pascual said there will be a 8.22% increase in Cost of Living Adjustment. He said it was important to keep in mind that the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds, HEERF, will expire. He said the ending fund balance for ELAC, in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, will be $9.7 million. The Los Angeles Community College District will be providing
CN/JUAN CAVILLO
LET’S STAY POSITIVE—East Los Angeles College President Alberto Roman, going over some of the positive outcomes of the last scholastic year. ELAC a budget of $142 million for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, giving a total of about $152 million for ELAC.
Pascual said the decrease in enrollment and the COVID-19 pandemic has created a projected
budget deficit for the 2023-24 and 2024-2025 fiscal years. He forecasts a decrease in revenues for
2024-2025 fiscal year. He said there are two scenarios for the future fiscal situation for ELAC. These scenarios hinge on the decision of how student bad debt will be handled. Bad debt is money students owe to the scholastic institutions they have attended. “[The] LACCD has discussed the possibility of using the one-time COVID-19 Block Grant to pay off the student bad debt across all [nine] colleges. The scenarios were put together to determine what impact it would have on ELAC’s budget. They were specifically for the next two fiscal years under the two scenarios,” Pascual said. For the budgets to work he said the college would need to make adjustments. He said it will take some time to figure out what is best to do for the budgetary needs of the college and that it would take everyone working together to get it done. “The college is still at the early stage of discussion on how to best manage the deficit. This is a discussion that needs the involvement of the entire campus community through shared governance,” Pascual said. He said the budgetary issues do not affect any current initiatives, programs, activities or personnel. He said current student learning is not affected either. Alberto Roman, ELAC president, said there was work that had to be done, but that the work was not impossible to overcome. He said the main idea is that there is a need to tighten the school’s belt. Roman said there are initiatives that are coming down the pipeline that are positive. The first is a joint effort with two local high schools, Alhambra and Garfield, the State
Chancellor’s Office and ELAC. This program will provide ninth grade students with the opportunity to learn at a college level with cohorts that would be creating classes for them. These students would be considered dual enrolled in high school and college courses. “The State Chancellor has selected ELAC for a dual enrollment pilot that would involve providing all high school freshmen with one college course. The pilot will launch in fall 2023. It would be funded through general funds, but just like any other enrollment growth, we would collect funding from the state for the [Full-Time Equivalent Students] FTES, thus helping our college budget,” Roman said. FTES are those fulfilling a fulltime student unit coverage of 12 units. The students will count by being grouped in four student teams to create the equivalent 12 units. Miguel Duenas, vice president of Student Services, said there has been a rise in dual enrollment with spring 2022 numbers at 2,930 students and spring 2023 numbers at 3,289 students. This represents chances for high school students to further their scholastic skills with college level classes cheaply and easily. “State education laws require that these classes be offered at zero cost to the student. We have many students that participate in dual enrollment, some even graduate from high school with an associate degree,” Duenas said. Duenas said the focus of Student Services with students returning to campus more fully is to provide support and resources. He said giving students equitable and high level education is what ELAC is all about.
Students learn from summer festival BY KIMBERLY CHINCHILLA Staff Writer East Los Angeles College Summer Festival brought an evening full of informational resources for incoming and current students about career programs and resources offered on campus on May 18. Students brought family and friends to enjoy games like ring toss. Children played in the bounce houses and everyone attending the festival received a voucher ticket for burgers from The Habit Grill that was providing food at the event. Power 106, the Los Angeles hip-hop radio station, filled the ambience with music and gave away free merchandise, along with tickets to “The Little Mermaid.” Students who attended thefestival were able to apply for a one-time reward.The reward was a free laptop. Staff at the event said the laptops were bought with the funds that were given during the pandemic. Students were able to apply to this scholarship on the spot and see if they qualified. The requirements were simple: students should be actively enrolled at ELAC at the time of disbursement. They need to designate ELAC as their home campus. Students should be a first-time technology award recipient. This means that the student
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applying has never received/picked up a device such as a chrome book, tablet, laptop, or received emergency assistance funding for technology from the Los Angeles Community College District. Delma and Jasmine Guzman, a mother and daughter, found the event informative. “It is crazy because all this was meant to be. The way I see it because Jasmine doesn’t have a laptop. She was saying how her laptop doesn’t turn on and she was able to get a laptop,” Delma said.. “I was already telling my mom. I need to put money away and I need to save for a laptop and coming here I got one,” Jasmine said. “I’ll be honest, I usually don’t come to the events or anything but I just told my mom ‘Let’s go.’ I had questions and I feel like coming here. “I was able to get a lot of information and learn about resources. I need to start coming to more events now,” Jasmine said. Both Guzman’s plan to attend classes during the summer. At the event, students were guided through the process of applying for summer courses. They were able to ask questions and register for classes in a room where staff were helping them enroll. Some of the booths in attendance were: Screening and Treatment for Anxiety & Depression, who provided services for mental health. California Youth Leadership Corps, who issued information on how to gain experience in public,
community, and environmental health. Career and Academic Pathways, Social Sciences, Health Sciences and others. Megan Rivera, who is graduating, found the event helpful. She said she was grateful to the faculty and staff who were present at the event. “My favorite thing about the event is that I was able to learn more about the resources available,” Rivera said. “I feel like coming here in person was a hundred times better than calling, because you were able to resolve any problems in person,” Delma said.. Delma said the event was a success, “Especially for my daughter because she is just starting to get involved in programs so just talking to people has really opened up her options as to what she wants to do now. I really enjoyed it. It was an easy process to get the help they needed.” Ruth Carbajal, a student at the South Gate campus, was able to get assistance to enroll for classes. “Since I am older and don’t speak English fluently, I needed assistance in person. I am very proud that at an older age, I am still able to attend classes. I came to this event for help and they helped me enroll in classes and on top of that I learned about other programs the school offers that I might consider,” Carbajal said. The event was focused on providing information for both incoming and current students.
Pet Therapy The Student Health Center and Associated Student Union will host a pet therapy event next Tuesday from noon to 2 p.m. to help students de-stress during finals. Pets can be found in E3/E7 quad next week.
LOOK AT THE LINE—Students, parents and kids stand in line as they check-in for the Summer Festival at the South Gate campus.
CN/KIMBERLY CHINCHILLA
Student wrestler gains life lessons Town Hall Series Suzie Suh and other Asian American community members will advocate for and empower local APPI communities tomorrow at noon. Students can connect via Zoom http://bit.ly/3JY6QE1
Stay connected this summer
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