Budget forum held to address financial crisis

President Michael Claire directed attention beyond the immediate financial crisis in an all-college budget forum held Nov. 30.After a $3.2 million, 11.3 percent cut for 2009-10, faculty, staff and administrators have spent the fall planning how to reduce the budget an additional $2.8 million or 11.1 percent next year.

Two administrative positions will be eliminated in 2010-11 to save $243,000, and up to $1.1 million in temporary class and program cuts have been identified.

"CSM built a $1.8 million ending balance (last year) in anticipation of massive cuts, said Claire. "We will end the year with a $1.1 million projected ending balance. We will use (those) one-time funds to get through this year and next."

"After that we really need to reshape the college to reflect our new fiscal reality," Claire said.

The state will further reduce CSM's funded enrollment cap, Claire said, so the college must begin planning for additional cuts in future years.

"We are going to have to make some hard decisions about what the college is going to be," he said.

Claire said he had "walked the hallways" and heard faculty within the same department disagreeing about what the college should look like.

"We've got a lot of decisions to make in the next year that are going to be permanent," he said.

The Academic Senate voted "consensus" on Nov. 24 for 2010-11 curriculum budget reductions negotiated by the senate and the administration.

Claire congratulated the Academic Senate for "getting us through a very emotional, difficult process."

"The final recommendations were better than the original list," he said, referring to the initial list of proposed recommendations for curriculum cuts prepared by the administration as a starting point for discussion.

"I want to thank the ad-hoc committee and all faculty for being engaged and staying collegial throughout the process," said Diana Bennett, president of the Academic Senate. "The faculty at CSM showed their commitment to providing the highest quality learning environment possible for the students in San Mateo County."

"Because there was a preliminary list, everybody got involved," said Laura Demsetz, professor of engineering, and chair of the Academic Senate's Committee on Instruction. "We work much quicker when we have something to fight up against. It was a benefit that we had some ideas to react to."

"It would be good if we as a campus were presented with a candidate process, or more starting points," Demsetz said, suggesting a way to improve future deliberations on budget reductions.

"CSM faculty were distraught with the current process," said Bennett. " (The Academic Senate) Governing Council has asked the vice president of instruction of CSM not to act on the 2010-11 recommendations concerning program elimination or reduction before Skyline College's and Cañada College's specific plans are made public."

The Governing Council requested on Nov. 24 that for further budget reductions, a "district-wide evaluation of educational priorities MUST take place, and that a "district-wide and/or campus model for determining curricular offerings based on the requirements dictated by our students' educational goals should guide the process."

Now that planning is in place for the immediate "fiscal emergency," Claire said his focus will broaden to include increasing revenues.

"I'm going to be doing some arguing about our allocation model, because I believe we are getting less per student than the other colleges," Claire said. "The current allocation model wasn't meant (for these) conditions; it's a different time."

Claire said the college would also investigate a "scrip" program that allows local businesses to donate a portion of supporters' purchases with little administrative overhead for the college.