El Camino May Cut Its Summer Schedule to Fit Tighter Budget

El Camino College is planning to reduce its summer classes by 35% or more and is making other cuts as it braces for coming reductions in income, campus officials said last week.

Some classes also are being dropped from the current spring semester calendar, and officials at the community college are considering charging $20 a semester for student parking, which now is free.

The classes are being slashed in the face of an anticipated drop of $500,000 in the school’s share of state lottery revenues and Gov. Pete Wilson’s plans to offer no cost-of-living adjustment to schools in 1991-92, college officials said.

College President Sam Schauerman called this a year of unusual uncertainty for community colleges.

Political science professor Lance Widman, who is president of the faculty union, said: “The word is getting out to the staff that we’re not in good financial shape.”

The class cuts are producing larger classes and difficulties for students, Widman said. “It’s more intense than I’ve ever seen it. It’s students just scrambling for classes. . . . The instructional program loses some of its integrity if the classes just aren’t available to meet student needs.”

College officials say they will not cut many courses entirely, but instead will reduce the number of sections of some courses. For instance, a student may now have the choice of taking a particular course at any of 12 scheduled times. Under the cuts, that course might be limited to 10 sections instead of 12, said college spokeswoman Mary Ann Keating. The college may also cut some classes that do not attract many students, such as an audio-visual communications class, in which only eight students were enrolled last summer, Schauerman said.

The cutbacks could mean the college may not have room for all the students from four-year colleges who frequently take summer courses at El Camino because they are cheaper, he said.

During the summer months, the college traditionally offers a smaller class roster than during the fall and spring. By reducing the number of summer classes, officials hope to save $300,000 to $350,000, Schauerman said.

The savings include money that would have gone toward salaries for teachers, college officials said. It will also reduce the number of students, which ordinarily would mean less state aid.

But college enrollment has been growing faster than the 1% yearly figure allowed by the Legislature. As a result, state funding has not been keeping pace with student growth, Keating said. So, a reduction of students could bring enrollment down closer to the college’s growth limit, Keating said.

Widman, however, said that the loss of summer faculty slots will hurt those faculty members who were counting on the extra summer income. “I know a whole lot of my colleagues who are really hurting,” said Widman, who is president of the El Camino Federation of Teachers and a member of the campus Budget Development Task Force.

Nearly 25,000 students are now registered at El Camino. About 73% of the school’s income comes from the state.

In two newsletters in recent weeks, Schauerman outlined three reasons for the fiscal problems at the college, which has a 1990-91 general fund budget totaling $56.4 million.

El Camino had anticipated getting $2.3 million in lottery funds but now expects only $1.8 million, due to a drop-off in lottery sales. The lack of an increase in the state cost-of-living allowance would also hurt revenues. And Los Angeles County is billing the college a new fee of $221,000 for collecting property taxes.

In response, college officials have instituted a hiring freeze and are considering charging a materials fee in some courses. The board of trustees has also approved an increase in out-of-state tuition from $105 to $112 per credit unit for 1991-92, college officials said.

Steven T. Nash, the student representative on the board of trustees, said he had not heard about the cuts in summer courses.

The proposed $20 parking fee, has stirred concern among many of the college’s 30,000 students, Nash said. The additional cost will pose a hardship for some of them, he said.

Moreover, he added, “paying this parking fee is not going to guarantee a parking place.” The college currently does not have enough on-campus parking, and residents in nearby neighborhoods have been complaining about the overflow of cars, he said.