Schools

Santa Monica College Budget Town Hall Meeting Is No Tea Party

While the Wednesday afternoon discussion was genial, it underscored grim fiscal realities facing the community college.

It's no secret that is facing big budget cuts, will likely have to reduce its class offerings and may even have to lay off staff. But at a related town hall meeting held Wednesday afternoon on the school's main campus, attendees seemed to start coming to grips with the harsh reality.

The meeting was led by SMC President Dr. Chui Tsang—who in an interview with Santa Monica Patch late last month—and Business/Administrator Vice President Bob Isomoto. In the words of Tsang, Isomoto laid out a "very sobering picture" of the college's financial outlook to the roughly 275 individuals who were packed into the Theatre Arts Main Stage.

"The state's budget is in a bad place right now, and it might affect us tremendously," Isomoto said.

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According to the VP, SMC has a projected operating deficit of $5.7 million in the 2011-12 school year. Of the school's budget, 88 percent goes to expenditures related to staff salaries and benefits; 12 percent is used for supplies, contracts, utilities, equipment and insurance. He said the cost of benefits now accounts for 20 percent of SMC's budget expenditures—an 8 percent jump—and that the college is faced with having to downsize 1,000 to 3,500 full-time equivalent students (FTEs). A hiring freeze was implemented at the school last month.

Isomoto laid out three possible future fiscal scenarios, the best of which would find the college having to slash a net $8.5 million from its budget. That scenario (a $11,271,000 deficit) could come about if Gov. Jerry Brown's succeeds.

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In a worse scenario (a $15,496,000 deficit), the college would face a $12.7 million net reduction. And in the worst-case scenario (a $21,163,000 deficit), fees would need to generate $280 million statewide and class fees would leap to $66 per unit—not to mention that 417,000 students would have to leave community colleges throughout California.

According to Isomoto, the middle scenario is " what's looming … if you're a betting person, this is what's coming up." The VP expressed his frustration with the uncertainty regarding the state fiscal budget, saying, "You can't plan anything. [The lack of certainty] keeps everything in flux."

Tsang followed Isomoto, and while the president didn't reassure the crowd, he appeared to share their anxieties.

"Even if we did nothing next year, we still can survive—but we probably have zero chance of surviving the next two years," he said bluntly.

After a few more remarks, Tsang began fielding audience questions, which ended up comprising the bulk of the town hall meeting.

When asked whether 20 retiring faculty members will be replaced, Tsang's comments once again reflected the difficulty SMC is having with planning for the future. "I have made a commitment that we'll go ahead with filling those 20 positions—given the governor's [tax-extension] proposal is approved," he qualified.

Alluding to the school's new buildings and in-the-works construction projects, he said, "We don't want these beautiful facilities to sit empty while these students are going to for-profit colleges, where they don't have any guarantee about the education they're getting."

A handful of individuals voiced to Tsang their concerns about the fate of , the SMC program that serves older adults in the Santa Monica community. He said, "Emeritus is going to be affected as much as SMC is."

While Tsang and Isomoto didn't say definitively that course offerings would be cut, the indication was that, in all likelihood, they will be. Tsang said SMC administrators are dialoguing with City of Santa Monica officials about acquiring financial assistance, but even the best-case scenario would likely see cutbacks in Emeritus' physical-education and dance/performance programs.

SMC students won't have the same latitude in enrolling in courses that don't help them achieve their unit requirements. Also, the college is trying to find ways to increase fees for international and out-of-state students. Relatedly, Tsang emphasized that the college is trying to find innovative ways to ensure that international students can fulfill the 12-unit threshold required in order to legally reside in the United States.

A couple of individuals from an organization called the Student Unity Project openly criticized the SMC leadership, saying that administrators were disproportionately paid compared with instructors. When someone from the audience called out, "Where do you get your facts?," one of the group members replied, "From [members of] the faculty."

After a Student Unity Project representative spoke, a member of the audience said factions within the school shouldn't turn on each other amid the budget debacle. "We don't want to blame any of this on one group or have the sufferings," he said.

The man thanked Tsang for staging the town hall meeting and improving the dialogue between administrators, faculty and students—despite the grim reality that lies ahead.

Correction: SMC's operating deficit was incorrectly stated as its operating budget.

This article was updated on Friday, Mar. 25, at 12:10 p.m.


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