Of particular concern was the board’s recent consideration of support for special-status designation at a new Los Angeles City College campus, which would draw students away from the college and its satellite campus, Marsden said.
The board, at its last meeting, chose not to support the designation.
Also mentioned was a recently commissioned investigation into faculty contracts and salaries at other community colleges, in order to compare whether there might be room for cuts, Marsden said.
Guild members were not upset that the board was taking such actions, but because it was not asking for input from faculty, guild President Gordon Alexandre said.
“All we want is all the cards at the table, and we want to be at that table,” Alexandre told trustees, later adding, “We’ve been through budget crises before but never as deep as this one seems to be, and never with as much lack of collegiately.”
One way to encourage more dialogue might be to create a joint committee, Trustee Anthony Tartaglia said.
“Decisions have to be made by all parties involved,” Tartaglia said. “When everyone is allowed to participate in the process, decisions will work.”
The criticisms came after a presentation from Patrick McCallum, the college’s lobbyist in Sacramento, who estimated that the college could lose enough money in the middle of its operations to force it to reduce courses and drop more than 3,000 students.
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $2.5 billion in reductions to California’s public schools and community colleges are approved, community colleges across the state could be forced to cut more than 250,000 students because of course reductions, McCallum said.
