OCC weighing how best to make cuts

Christine Carrillo

With the weight of heavy budget cuts hanging over the Coast

Community College District, Orange Coast College officials are

looking for ways to lighten their $6 million load without piling up

problems for their students.

The OCC Planning and Budget Committee met this week to get the

brain waves of division deans and department chairs moving in unison

and fashioning alternative ideas to cutting nearly 1,000 sections for

the 2003 to 2004 academic year.

By focusing on a conservative target of $6 million in mid-year

budget cuts for OCC, Gene Farrell, the college’s interim president,

suggested tapping into three different areas within the college.

The bulk of the savings, about $3 million, would result from

cutting about 1,000 class sections over the next year -- a scenario

that seems likely.

“It will be inescapable not to touch everyone. The students will

be most affected,” Farrell said. “We need everyone’s best brainwork

to think of any other options. ... Every time you come with a $3,000

idea, you save another section.”

Farrell encouraged committee members to come up with other ways to

deal with the more than $20 million in district cutbacks resulting

from Gov. Gray Davis’ recent budget proposal. He asked them to find

ways to make cutbacks within their respective divisions and

departments that they can funnel back in to save classes.

The other $3 million would made up from among several sources.

The swap meet is expected to generate about $500,000 in revenue,

and another $500,000 would be saved by a strict cutback on office

supplies.

The final $2 million would come from the continuation of the

district’s hiring freeze and about 40 prospective staff retirements

by the end of this year.

Expressing the district’s goal to avoid layoffs at all costs,

Farrell tried to assuage fears about job security, but he noted that

any attempt to secure jobs would mean more work for everyone.

The committee also discussed pushing back the summer schedule one

month to save money on the shortened registration period. It will

seriously consider the $13 increase per unit fee, which is also in

Davis’ proposal.

The committee will meet next month to start planning and

implementing cutbacks.

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO may be reached at (949) 574-4268 or by

e-mail at christine.carrillo@latimes.com.