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STATE
BUDGET CUTS WILL FORCE COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT COLLEGES TO
OFFER FEWER CLASSES, REDUCED SERVICES
Summer classes
will be cut by 70 percent, and more than 2,000 classes could be
cut in the fall 2003 semester throughout the Coast Community
College District as colleges face proposed budget cuts from the
state of more than 20 percent. Last fall, the three colleges
within the District offered more than 4,800 class sections.
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CONTACT:
Erin Cohn
District Director,
Public Affairs
(714) 438-4605
January 30, 2003
NEWS
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“The budget
picture is bleak, but we are committed to offering every section and
every class that we can afford to offer our students,” said Coast
District Chancellor William M. Vega. “We will make every effort to
make these cuts in ways that do not negatively affect students. But the
fact is that unless we receive some relief from the Legislature and the
Governor from the dramatic cuts proposed for fiscal year 2003-04, we
will not be able to accommodate as many students this fall. This is
contrary to everything the California community colleges are about.”
The Coast Community College District could be required to cut as much as
$9 million from its $144 million budget for 2002-03, and another $15
million on top of those cuts for the 2003-04 fiscal year.
“It’s simply impossible to make reductions of this magnitude without
affecting services and reducing access for our students,” Vega said.
In fact, to meet the targets set by the Governor’s proposed 2003-04
reductions, Coast Community College District colleges would likely close
the doors to about 5,000 full-time equivalent students. Because many
students at community colleges do not take full time class loads, this
could mean as many as 10,000 students could be impacted. In the 2002-03
academic year, the three Coast District colleges served more than 60,000
Orange County students.
To avoid such negative impacts on students, the Coast District is
committed to working with students, faculty, staff and the community to
determine how best to make reductions within the colleges and the
District, and to work with Legislators and the Governor to find a more
equitable solution to the cuts proposed for next year.
The Coast Community College District is the seventh largest community
college district in the nation in credit enrollment, serving 55,000
students each semester. The
district is comprised of Coastline Community College headquartered in
Fountain Valley, Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Orange Coast
College in Costa Mesa, and KOCE-TV, the district’s public broadcasting
station.
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