Mendocino Community College braces for $800,000 in cuts
UKIAH ? Anticipating at least an $800,000 impact from proposed state budget cuts, Mendocino College foresees serving more students with less money in the coming years.
“That”s pretty much our motto,” Mendocino College Vice-President of Education and Student Services Meridith Randall said Friday.
Randall said she expects that the bulk of the forecasted cuts will come from the college”s Ukiah operation and from administration, but satellite campuses in Lakeport and Willits will also suffer. Bond measures previously passed for expansion will not be affected, she said, but classes have already been cut in Ukiah despite measures to preserve classes and student services, avoid layoffs, and maintain a 5-percent reserve.
“At this point we don”t know the final amount we”re going to be cut, so we”re doing some very surgical cutting of classes. We are not eliminating entire disciplines, but we”re trying to cut classes we think will have the least impact on students,” Randall said.
The Ukiah campus lost eight to 10 classes in the last three days, just weeks into registration for the spring, when Randall said she hopes students will feel the cut the least. The Lake County campus did not take any losses, she said.
According to the Community College League of California, the a projected 400,000 state job loss anticipated by the Department of Finance will mean enrollment demand at community colleges will continue to rise.
Mendocino County”s unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in October, up 37.1 percent from the same time last year. In Lake County unemployment was at 11.2 percent in October, up 46 percent from last year.
Randall said higher unemployment rates will fuel a need for retraining. Combined with the anticipated influx of college hopefuls who may be turned away from the University of California and California State University systems in the face of the proposed state cuts, Randall said that will mean community colleges have to walk the line between belt-tightening and keeping services available to students.
“We are trying to preserve transfer classes for students who want to go to four-year schools, basic skills classes which generally include math and English for students who need to upgrade their skills in those areas, and career and technical classes like business, automotive and nursing that will lead to fairly well-paying jobs for students. Anything that falls outside those categories we”re not cutting at this point, but we”re looking at it very closely,” Randall said.
Mendocino College has also cut temporary office help and staff travel expenses, and plans to avoid spending money already budgeted for supplies and equipment. The college is also keeping dark six permanent staff positions, one being the dean of student services. Existing staffers are being asked to take on additional duties in the interim, according to Randall.
Vice President of Administrative Services Larry Perryman said the expected $800,000 to $1 million impact to Mendocino College “could easily double if the Governor”s proposals for revenue enhancements are not acceptable to the legislature.”
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
