9/11:
10 years later, impact still felt by students [FOCUS, PG. 7]
FOOD: The electronic revolution meets the dining experience
[A&E, PG. 5]
FOCUSED ON PALOMAR
the telescope Monday, Sept. 12, 2011
Vol. 65, No. 3
Palomar College, San Marcos, Calif.
Students filled the American Indian class, in MD-131 on Aug. 25. It is one of many full classes that students tried to crash during the first of the semester, the Multidisiplanary Building. (Sergey Kolivayko/The Telescope)
Palomar’s rainy day fund grows despite continued cuts Calif. legislators’ efforts to balance the state budget mean more class cuts for Palomar students, fewer full-time faculty positions, larger ending fund balance
Ian Hanner The Telescope
Palomar students are suffering after deep funding cuts forced college officials to slash classes and pare back hiring of professors. Sacramento legislators cut nearly $350 million from state community college budgets in an effort to balance California’s books and close a yawning deficit. Palomar sustained an $8.9 million cut, resulting in 600 class cancellations for the 2011-2012 school year. College officials said they are struggling to compensate for the massive drop in funding. “More of [the state] budget is going to prisons than to education,” said Bonnie Dowd, the college’s outgoing finance director. “And quite honestly, shame on us.” For the past three years, the deep recession has wracked businesses and ordinary people across the nation. Southern California in particular has been hit hard by the recession, greatly impacting life at Palomar.
$ 20 M $8.9 M
cut from Palomar’s 2011-2012 budget
resulting in
600 cut classes
As the economic downturn reached its fevered pitch in 2010, companies laid off workers enmasse, leaving many with nowhere to turn but higher education. Enrollment at Palomar exploded after 2008, as thousands of students flocked to the college in search of new skills and contacts to give them a leg up in the sour job market. So, when state legislators put community college funding on the chopping block in May, observers wondered how an already overfilled system could survive a deep financial drawback. Palomar officials responded by cutting classes and gearing up an efficiency and cost-cutting campaign that targeted overspending in areas like office supplies and building maintenance. In an effort to keep high-demand classes on the rolls, officials said they prioritized cuts to avoid eliminating any transfer-track classes. “We have to put an emphasis on the transfer, vocational and basic skill courses,” said Joe Newmyer, the incoming college finance director. “And so the Instruction office has tried to maintain those [classes] to the greatest degree possible.” Officials said the college’s financial issues, while dire, might be alleviated in the coming months. turn to BUDGET, PAGE 10
rainy day fund