GILROY
–– Gavilan College’s innovative problem solving will be
highlighted at a gathering of the state’s community colleges this
weekend. Representatives from a budget task force and campus
tolerance group will present two workshops at the Community College
League of California’s Annual Convention Satu
rday morning.
GILROY –– Gavilan College’s innovative problem solving will be highlighted at a gathering of the state’s community colleges this weekend. Representatives from a budget task force and campus tolerance group will present two workshops at the Community College League of California’s Annual Convention Saturday morning.
Members of the Expenditure Reduction Task Force will present the successful approach taken by Gavilan to accommodate state budget cuts to community college executives and governing boards gathered at the Oakland Marriott. The Stand Together Group will demonstrate Gavilan’s inclusive yet alternative approach to promoting diversity and safety on campus.
“A common thread to be found in the two workshops presented by Gavilan College is an institutional approach to problem-solving that is creative, open, inclusive and seeks input from all members of the campus community,” said Jan Bernstein Chargin, Gavilan’s public information officer.
The college will also receive an award for the task force’s achievement in January of trimming $1.2 million from Gavilan’s budget to cover an existing deficit and anticipated state cuts. President Steve Kinsella created the task force to receive input from two representatives each of students, faculty members, administrators and classified staff.
“What really made the process stand out was how much input we got from the college community,” Chargin said, “how inclusive the decision was and, by doing that, how easy it was to implement.”
The group examined the entire budget, identifying areas to trim by first distinguishing the “essential” from the “desirable,” Chargin said. Then, it made cuts from the outside in, protecting the most valuable programs.
“They did a great job,” Chargin said. “And their charge was to find permanent, not one-time, savings.”
Gavilan’s inclusiveness in its task force is different from the top-down approach to cuts used on other campuses.
“(Other colleges) had a lot more conflicts in making the decisions, a lot more disagreements,” Chargin said. “And that leads to a loss of productivity, a loss of focus.”
The Stand Together Group will also show the state’s community college leaders how to embrace diversity and inclusiveness in policy decisions.
The grassroots group of students, instructors, administrators and support staff informs Gavilan officials on institutional decisions ranging from curriculum to hate crimes policy.
“One of the ways in which it’s unique is that it’s not a college committee,” said Terrence Willett, the group’s information officer and Gavilan’s director of research.
The group also partners with other campus groups to plan cultural events, such as recruiting speakers for a pre-election debate about Proposition 54, which would have stopped the government’s collection of racial and ethnic data.
On Nov. 11, the Board of Trustees approved a board policy prohibiting harassment and hate crimes that was revised with the help of the Stand Together Group to include references specifically to hate crimes.
“We realized we didn’t really have a good plan on how to respond to (hate crimes),” Willett said.
A hate crime on campus in 1998 sparked the first motivation for forming the group, which officially organized last spring.
“The group exists to promote cultural diversity and inclusiveness and mutual respect on the campus … so that everyone in the college can feel safe and included,” Willett said.
