Unexpected Windfall
California community colleges benefit from this year's generous budget

 

By William Doyle
and William Trombley

CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY college officials are dipping deep into the barrel of superlatives to describe their 1996-97 budget.

The state's 106 two-year colleges expect to receive almost $3.3 billion in total support for the current academic year, including state general funds, local property tax revenue and student fees. This is $455 million more than last year, or a 15 percent increase.

"This is the best budget in decades," said Tom Van Groningen, acting chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District, in Sacramento.

Patrick McCallum, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, called it, "in dollar terms, the best budget ever."

And Arthur Blackinton, vice president for administrative services at College of the Siskiyous in Weed, said, "I have a hard time believing that this budget is for real."

Officials are stunned because the 1990s have brought almost continuously bad news for community colleges--budget cuts, falling enrollments, physically deteriorating campuses and the quadrupling of fees for students who already had earned bachelor degrees.

But the Wilson Administration first increased community college funding by about seven percent for the 1996-97 academic year and then presented the colleges with an additional $160 million by underestimating 1995-96 state revenues by more than $1 billion. State law, established by the passage of Proposition 98 in 1988, dictates that two-thirds of the surplus must go to K-12 schools and community colleges.

More than half of the new money is earmarked for enrollment growth but the budget also includes a three percent cost-of-living increase and substantial new spending for instructional equipment ($91 million) and for badly-needed repairs ($85 million).

Regular tuition fees will be held to $13 per unit for the third year in a row, and the $50-per-unit "differential fee" for bachelor degree holders has been eliminated.

As a result, enrollment on the state's two-year campuses is expected to increase by more than 70,000 this year, bringing the statewide total close to the 1991-92 record of 1,515,000 students. Since then, community college enrollment has dropped by more than 171,000.

"Colleges have been turning students away," said James A. Albanese, who was vice chancellor for fiscal policy in the statewide community colleges office until recently. "There have been waiting lists for basic courses in math, English and science. Now colleges will be able to admit these students."

Some community colleges have been quick to respond--adding new class sections, opening weekend programs and leasing space for "quick colleges" and "late start" colleges that allow students to compress a semester's work into a few weeks.

"We're looking everywhere for classrooms," said Susie Williams, spokeswoman for the Los Rios Community College District, which expects at least a five percent enrollment increase this year.

Pasadena City College has added 180 class sections, mostly in basic English and mathematics. East Los Angeles College has added 60 sections so far and probably will increase that number, although "everybody wants morning classes and we can't always accommodate them," said Maria Martinez, vice president for academic affairs.

Coast Community College District, in Orange County, plans to open a new off-campus center in an underserved area of Garden Grove.

Officials of the Mt. San Jacinto Community College District in fast-growing Riverside County anticipate a 40 percent enrollment increase and say they could accommodate even more students if more money were available.

In recent years, "we stopped sending out catalogs because people would call up to register and all of the spots would already be filled," said Wally Upper, the district's chief business officer.

Mt. San Jacinto also will be able to hire librarians and acquire books for a new library building that has been standing empty.

To qualify for the growth money, colleges must meet new enrollment targets. While that will not be a problem for Mt. San Jacinto and other campuses with long student waiting lists, some might have trouble reaching the new goals.

"I really believe those dollars are going to be absorbed," Albanese said. "Most districts realize if they don't get out and serve more students, they're going to be in real trouble."

Others are skeptical, in part because news of the big budget increase did not reach the campuses until well into the summer--in some cases after registration for fall classes had ended. "The demand is there but will people find out in time?" asked David Viar, executive director of the Community College League of California.

Many colleges are aggressively pursuing additional students--advertising in newspapers and on radio and television--"turning over every rock," as one admissions officer put it.

"It's great to have the new money but I'm afraid it may be creating an 'ADA chase' situation," Patrick McCallum said. ("ADA," or average daily attendance, is the basis on which community college districts are paid by the state.)

Some fear a return to the days when many two-year colleges offered "avocational" and "recreational" courses of dubious educational value.

"We will do our system harm if we add recreational and avocational courses just to secure additional enrollments," Community Colleges Acting Chancellor Tom Nussbaum warned in a mid-August memo to the 71 community college districts.

However, not everyone seems to have gotten the message. A music instructor at a suburban community college called the big funding increase "marvelous news--our choral group will be at full strength for the first time in years!"

Most college planners, concerned that this year's budget good news might not be repeated, are hiring part-time instructors, not full-time contract faculty, to handle the increased enrollments.

"We are asking faculty members to add two or three students to each class, to give us an 'attrition cushion,'" said Van Groningen of the Los Rios (Sacramento) district.

While most colleges are concentrating on increasing enrollment, some are focusing on new instructional programs.

For instance, Santa Monica College will begin to train technicians for the entertainment and biomedical industries, which are booming in the Los Angeles area and need more trained workers.

"We really were living from year to year. We haven't been able to plan actively for the future," said Piedad Robertson, president of Santa Monica College. "Now we are able to work with the state, the Los Angeles mayor's office and others to help provide a trained work force for Los Angeles County."

Campus administrators welcomed the increased state funding for instructional equipment and for repairs, although it would take several hundred million additional dollars to catch up with the maintenance that has been deferred in recent years.

But the new money will help. For instance, the College of Marin will be able to replace leaky roofs and the College of the Desert can repair an electrical system that failed two years ago, forcing the Palm Desert campus to close for a week. Los Angeles Valley College will install a new phone system and provide computers for all academic departments for the first time.

Although the colleges will benefit from this year's generous budget, the same cannot be said for the statewide offices of Acting Chancellor Nussbaum. Despite heavy lobbying by various community college groups and by Republican members of the colleges' statewide Board of Governors, a $380,000 augmentation for the chancellor's office--approved by the Legislature--was blue-penciled out of the final budget by Governor Wilson.

"Our budget has dropped from $22 million to $14 million in recent years," said Albanese, the former vice chancellor for fiscal policy. "We have lost 45 percent of our positions. Several top jobs remain unfilled because we don't have the money to fill them, yet we keep getting more mandates from the Legislature. I keep asking, what does the governor expect the chancellor's office to do with this grossly inadequate budget?"