Serving the campus community since 1946
NIO U N
Warriors first game against Palomar Page 6
EL CAMINO COLLEGE
Sept. 6, 2012
President stops to help student
$7.3 million slashed from EC budget Philip Prins
Co-News Editor
Philip Prins/ Union EC President Tom Fallo helps freshman Donte Weaver, 18, undecided major, to sift through the class catalog and find his necessary sections on Aug.27, the first day of the fall semester.
Torrance, California
Final adjustments to EC’s 2012-2013 budget have been made but major questions remain in the wake of uncertainty over the fate of Proposition 30, an EC administrator said. The college is faced with a $7.3 million loss in state funding if Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposition 30 tax initiative fails to pass during the November elections, Jo Ann Higdon, vice president of administrative services, said. “If the proposal does not pass there will have to be major reductions in course offerings,” Higdon said. Up to 300 class sections could be cut from the remaining year if Proposition 30 fails, but the exact number that would be cut was unknown, she said. Higdon said that spring semester could take the brunt of the cuts but that summer and fall semesters would not be greatly impacted. “We really have not cut out summer and fall sections by any significant amount,” Higdon said. “What we have done is enforce our general rule that a class has to be pretty full for us not to cancel it.” In a speech to faculty, President Tom Fallo said the college planned to “cut back” to its full time student cap, which is cur-
rently budgeted for around 18,000 students. “We’re probably not going to have any extra FTES (full time equivalent students),” Fallo said. “That’s what Jack Scott (California Community Colleges Chancellor) said, he said ‘you go over cap (the amount of FTES the state is willing to fund), the legislature looks at us and says you don’t need as much money.’” The 2012-2013 general unrestricted fund was budgeted at $117.3 million, which showed a $7.3 million reduction from the $124 million budgeted for 20112012. Higdon said the $7.3 million had to be taken from the budget so that the college was prepared for the “worst case” if Proposition 30 fails. According to data in the budget the $7.3 million cut was a combination of savings from eliminating class sections during fiscal year 2011-2012, restructuring of employee positions, reducing election costs, reducing administrative costs, and transferring funds from the school’s budget reserve to make up any gap. Another budget issue that had concerned faculty was the possibility of pay and furlough reductions, but this issue had been resolved, Fallo said. “We’ve withdrawn any salary reductions and or furloughs based on budget,” Fallo said,
which was immediately followed by muted applause from faculty. Recently Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency downgraded the college’s general obligation bond outlook from stable to negative due to the planned reductions to the school’s general reserve over the next few years, Fallo said. Fortunately, the downgrade will not have any direct impact on the budget, Higdon said. Higdon explained that there was a “firewall” between bond funds and the operating budget and since the school’s general obligation bond rating was still AA, there had been no problems selling the majority of the remaining $180 million of the 2002 Measure E bond, which funded the extensive building projects on campus. A final budget consideration was the use of the 2011-2012 ending budget reserve of $21.1 million, which was projected to drop to around $15.5 million after transferring money to fill budget gaps, according to budget proposal document. “I’m looking at the economics of probably three years from now. What happens?” Fallo said. “We have to get through three years so I’m trying to space our reserves over that three year period.”
Changes in repeatable class policy require course restructuring Thomas Schmit
Co-News Editor
While changes to Title V course repeatability regulations regarding non-repeatable classes were officially implemented over the summer, similar regulations regarding repeatable classes won’t go into effect until fall 2013, an EC official said. “The policy change for repeating classes you can only take once is now in place,” Dr. Jeanie Nishime,
Vice President of Student and Community advancement said. “Basically, you can only take non-repeatable classes three times, and that’s it,” Nishime added. However, due to the unique structure and position of repeatable classes, policy changes regarding those classes, such as P.E. and art, have proven to be less simple to apply. “Curriculum changes have to take place this year on that, because you
can’t have an abcd class any more, each must be offered on its own merit, so the faculty will have to revise their course offerings first,” Nishime said. Further confusing the issue is that the new changes to the Title V regulations don’t in fact apply equally to all repeatable classes, Dean of Fine Arts Constance Fitzsimons said. “Some courses have been exempt, athletic competition and intercollegiate academic competitive
courses, like the football and forensics teams, they
Also exempt from the new regulations are courses for which transfer universities accept multiple “...repeatability may units of, including classes well be blocking new such as applied music and performing ensemble. students from access The California Community Colleges Chancelto classes.” —Constance Fitzsimons lor’s Office has spent more than the last year and a Dean of Fine Arts half studying the topic of course repeatability, according to a document released by Barry Russell, can still go as abcd’s,” Vice Chancellor of the AcFitzsimons said. ademic Affairs Division.
“Under the current economic and legislative climate, the community colleges have come under increasing scrutiny concerning the ability of students to repeat classes in a manner that is not productive to the goal of increasing overall student success and completion,” the document reads. The policy changes have been made in the interests of both streamlining the California Community College system, as well as
ensuring as high an influx of new students as possible. “One of the primary concerns was that repeatability may well be blocking new students from access to classes,” Fitzsimons said. “We’re kind of looking at, if we can only offer fewer classes, how do we make sure that everyone gets equal access to those classes?” Fitzsimons added.
Prop. 30 could provide up to $213 million to community colleges Philip Prins
Co-News Editor
NEWS LINE
Another budget cut looms on the horizon if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax increase initiative, Proposition 30, fails to pass during the November elections, EC’s president said. “If it fails (Proposition 30), we have been told in no unequivocal terms, that we will lose 7.3 percent of our revenue, which comes to about $7.3 million,” Tom Fallo, president, said. “The impact would basically be we will be cutting classes.” Proposition 30 would “increase the state’s sales and use tax by a quarter-cent for four years and increase personal income tax rates on income above
By Karly Daquila
$250,000 for seven years,” with 89 percent of the revenue going to K-12 schools and 11 percent going to community colleges, according to a University of California fact sheet. If Proposition 30 passes, the community college system is projected to receive $213 million in additional funding for the 2012-2013 academic year with a funding “increase of at least 4 percent for fiscal years 2013-14 through 2015-16,” according to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. If voters don’t pass the initiative, the community college system will have to endure an additional 7.5 percent budget cut, Jack Scott, former California Community Colleges Chancel-
lor, said in a press release. “This hit would further impair our ability to educate the workforce that California’s economy needs and push some colleges to the brink financially,” Scott said. “On the other hand, passage of the tax measure would stop the bleeding and help point us in a better direction.” Fallo said that EC administrators are planning ahead for the possible budget cut by looking at some cuts to classes now so that if major cuts come later they will be less harsh. It was still uncertain where cuts in class sections would be made, Fallo said. “We will probably try to keep the winter inter-session,” Fallo said. “We could be cut-
ting spring slightly; we could be cutting summer slightly. We just don’t know.” Fallo said that if Proposition 30 fails he could again recommend winter session be cut, although that was extreme and he wasn’t sure he would do that. “Right now it’s scheduled, the board has approved it, and we have appropriated money for it,” Fallo said. “But if we have a 7.3 percent reduction something has got to go.” An initiative to endorse Proposition 30 was originally scheduled to be voted upon Tuesday, but the board of trustees agreed to table the initiative until the next board meeting on December 17.
Nursing Info Workshop on Campus
Financial Aid Online Workshop
Club Rush Next Week
Those interested in learning more about the Nursing Program are encouraged to attend the Nursing Info Workshop Monday. The workshop will take place in the Distance Education Room from 10 a.m. to noon.
The Financial Aid Department will be having a financial aid online workshop Tuesday in the Student Services Center 204-G. Interested persons maycontact the EC financial aid office at 310-660-3493 or ECCfaid@elcamino.edu.
Students interested in joining a club this semester should take advantage of the Club Rush week Monday through Thursday. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. various campus clubs will have booths on the Schauerman Library lawn for students to gather information about clubs and organizations to join.
Kyle Borden/ Union Students are already lining up outside the financial aid office; if Proposition 30 fails, lines could easily double.
Writing Center will have expanded evening hours
Transfer Admission Guarantee Workshop
Starting Monday, the Writing Center will provide tutoring until 7:40 p.m. Monday through Thursday nights, while computers will be available to students untill 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The Writing Center is in H122 in the Humanities Building.
Students involved in the Honors Transfer Program are encouraged to attend the TAG workshop Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. in Communications 302. Students in attendance will learn about the HTP TAG agreements. Interested persons may contact the Transfer Services Department.