State budget cuts hit OCC

OCC is planning to cut classes by 10% for the spring semester, officials said Thursday. Citing the economic crisis and state restrictions on school growth, they said they had no choice but to reduce course offerings.

But that figure — working out to more than 100 classes — is a bit misleading, OCC President Bob Dees said. After all, the fall semester had far more classes than normal because of a budget surplus last year, he added.

“We’re going back to about the level of spring 2007,” he said.

But the news might not be as bad as it seems so far, Dees said. Department heads are meeting regularly to try to find ways to cut less, he said.

OCC isn’t the only one struggling with state economic woes, Coastline Community College District board member Walter Howald said.

“This is going to happen over the state, let alone the district,” Howard said. “There are many colleges that are going to have to cut back some.”

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the cuts happen even as the district has more money to work with so far, Coastline Community College District President Armando Ruiz said.

According to Ruiz, schools got to give raises and hire more full-time faculty, but the state lowered its cap on how much colleges can grow; over that limit, classes don’t get state funding, something the district can’t afford, he said.

Classes are going to be tight this year in order to try to accommodate as many students as possible, Dees said.

“Historically, there are always classes that aren’t full,” he said. “Next semester, I expect we’ll fill ’em up. We want to use every seat we’ve got.”

OCC student Sean Geber, 23, said classes were often tight enough already, and some students would have it hard.

“I’ve had to petition [to join] at least one or two classes a semester,” he said. “In some classes, there were more people petitioning than students already in the class.”

OCC is going to try its best to help students figure out their schedules, Dees said.

“If we have any extra money or energy we’re going to put that into services and support for students,” he said. “We’ll make sure students get all kinds of advice on what classes to take.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].