Armine Hacopian
Glendale Community College is struggling through a time of financial uncertainty. What expertise and perspective will you add to discussions about budget cuts?
As a two-term trustee, I have had to deal with uncertain community college funding. I will be the only one on the board with such experience.
Working closely with local elected officials has given me ample opportunities to educate/advocate for issues, including lowering tuition rates as our tuition is set and collected by state government.
The college has a shared governance infrastructure, including a budget development committee, providing advisory recommendations to the chief executive, thus the board. Through this process, groups should have an advisory voice in budget cuts.
I took over the responsibility of board presidency when there was a resignation. Co-trustees reelected me to continue due to my ability to lead during crises (33 months as president).
I co-chaired the $98-million bond measure, approved by voters, affording Glendale Community College to build a parking structure and renovate buildings, including plans for major renovations at Garfield, as promised to Glendale taxpayers.
How can the college cut costs so as not to be forced into reducing its class offerings in the event of future budget cuts?
This is very difficult to accomplish, as every cut impacts our students.
Rolling/rotating cuts involves several programs taking turns in decreasing budget expenditures by a certain percentage.
Community colleges have various creative ways of handling budget cuts. Glendale Community College and five other community colleges established the San Gabriel/Foothill Assn. of Community Colleges to share successes.
Offering incentives such as "golden handshakes," we negotiate retirements and, in turn, hire less costly, new employees. This issue is a controlled process and is treated with great care, as institutional memory should not leave all at once.
Offering more courses on rotating basis is helpful.
Cuts aside, what are your suggestions for generating more revenue for the college?
Securing more grants from public/private sectors needs to continue. Many institutions shy away from grants; as grants terminate, employees become jobless.
The Glendale Community College federal lobbying firm is heavily in negotiations for more funding. It is through the efforts of this board that a new lobby firm was hired to pursue our interests better.
