Cabrillo Plans for Worst-Case Budget Scenario

Cabrillo College plans to sever $3 million from its fiscal year 2011-12 budget by June 15, President Brian King said Wednesday. The whirlwind round of cuts is meant to buffer an expected $10 million reduction in funds from the state.

The $10 million figure is the worst-case scenario, but it may be the most likely outcome at this point.

"There are no sacred cows" has become the mantra of regulars to College Planning Commission meetings; however, no one has dared name a specific program or service as expendable. The school is already 400 class sections smaller than it was in 2008, and losing accreditation as a community college is now a real concern.

Classified workers (positions such as administrators and janitors) have long been seen as cuts that don't harm students' educational experience, but those have already been reduced so much that Jill Gallo, coordinator of Nursing and Allied Health, doubts the school could function with further cuts in such areas.

“When a classified worker is laid off, the work they do still needs to be done,” Gallo said. "I am a classified worker myself, responsible for four departments."

In terms of sections, 200 additional classes could, in theory, be cut to make up the shortfall. But at this point, that would risk the accreditation of the school as a whole.

With fall schedules already finalized and remaining classified workers at a minimum, where the cuts will come from is still up in the air. Services essential to helping students with economic hardships, such as the Extended Opportunities Programs and Services, have been mentioned as possible cuts.

The cuts will be made over the course of three meetings through the middle of June, despite the plea of Faculty Senate President Steve Hodges that all cuts are made at once to retain a sense of campus unity.

However, too many programs are intertwined with each other to make a single chop possible. The ripple effects of certain layoffs make the situation complicated. 

“Some of eliminations will be a several-year process,” said Victoria Lewis, vice president of administrative services.

The key to the juggling act now is figuring out how to make cuts without voiding the college of existence, because community colleges get paid per student in the classroom. 

The Cabrillo College fact book also holds ominous signs of a school with overall declining enrollment but with an increase in the local-resident student population through 2016. This is a killer to funding, as out-of-state and international students pay the highest fees, while many local students pay nothing by filing for Board Of Governor's waivers for unit fees.

“We are certainly concerned about cuts that change who we are,” said King. “When you have to cut $10 million, it's really hard. So, we are having those conversations about trying to make ... the least-harmful decisions in cuts of that level.”