For the second consecutive semester, Gavilan College will reduce
the number of classes it offers this fall to buffer itself against
impending state budget cuts.
GILROY – For the second consecutive semester, Gavilan College will reduce the number of classes it offers this fall to buffer itself against impending state budget cuts.
Department heads and administrators are in the midst of eliminating 20 percent of the college’s fall semester class sections. The cuts mean there will be 100 fewer courses offered in the fall 2003 semester than in fall 2002.
Fall registration typically runs from late April through early May. The semester will begin Aug. 19.
The school had to cut a total of 120 class sections for the current spring semester, saving the college roughly $120,000, largely in part-time teacher salaries. Since issues are not yet finalized, it is not clear how much money the fall cuts would save.
“There’s still a healthy slew of classes,” said Marty Johnson, the school’s vice president of instructional services. “Generally, when we make a cut we make sure there are other choices for students.”
Johnson said classes this spring actually serve more students than last spring.
“This does mean you get classes with more students in them,” he said.
Gavilan is making spending cuts totaling $1.2 million, or nearly 7 percent of its general fund. The amount represents the $800,000 the state will likely remove from this year’s budget, as well as $400,000 in deficit spending the school can no longer afford.
Although school officials are trying to make the cuts as painless as possible, the effect is being felt.
James Barron, who is in his second year of the school’s two-year-old engineering program, will likely see required classes cut entirely from the fall semester offerings.
“They’re saying I can take the class at another community college like Evergreen (in San Jose),” he said. “I’m probably going to take all my classes there.”
But Barron, a full-time student who lives in Gilroy, said he would much prefer to attend school locally.
Johnson said classes could be brought back in better economic times and that staff is working on distant learning options for classes that are cut.
“We might be able to do a video class with Evergreen or Hartnell,” he said. “It’s being looked into now.”
