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| A victory against cuts at SCCC |
| By Darrin Hoop |
| Published: 04/10/2009 |
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"THERE WILL be pain in this community college district." Those were the harsh words of Thomas Malone, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Seattle Community College District on February 12. Unfortunately for him, a coalition of students, staff and professors at Seattle Central Community College (SCCC), as well as supportive community members, formed a new group on campus, SCCC Against Cuts to Education (SCCC ACE), which led a spirited campaign to challenge the proposed cuts to classes. And in a little over a month of organizing, we won an important victory, with a number of classes reinstated for the spring quarter. Initially, the SCCC administration had planned to cut about 4 percent of classes (about 40 in all) this spring for a "savings" of around $200,000. A sizable proportion of the cuts--between 25 and 43 percent, according to various sources--was to come from the World Languages classes (mostly Spanish, Japanese, French and German). These cuts were supposed to be just the beginning. According to an e-mail from SCCC President Mildred Ollée, more cuts could come in the fall with budget reductions potentially reaching $2.3 million in the next two years. All of this is part of addressing an enormous $9.3 billion budget deficit facing Washington state. There's a $1.3 billion deficit in the present budget that runs through June, and another $8 billion deficit in the two-year budget ending June 2011. Four-year schools like the University of Washington will face cuts of 11 percent, and two-year schools like SCCC of about 7 percent. If the cuts went unchallenged, the state schools would end up with about 10,500 fewer students than are presently enrolled. Seeing that if these cuts weren't opposed immediately it would only set a precedent for further cuts next fall and from the real needs of students being denied a chance to take classes that would improve their chances of transferring to four-year universities, students and professors affected by the proposal to cut classes immediately sprang into action, realizing that the board hoped to establish a precedent for implementing their cost-cutting measures that they could return to in the fall. World Languages students were concerned about getting the classes they needed to improve their chances of transferring into four-year institutions, and professors, members of the American Federation of Teachers Seattle Community Colleges Local 1789, would have lost teaching hours. So the two groups made common cause and started organizing in their classes, circulating petitions for students to sign in order to show that there was in fact demand for the classes that were being cut. This organizing alone reinstated at least one class. On February 12, more than 60 people showed up to the Board of Trustees meeting at North Seattle Community College to protest the class cuts. Then a group of students, spearheaded by the efforts of James Bichler and Marisa Tubbs, started a student grievance campaign at SCCC that resulted in more than 30 people crowding into the office of Lexie Evans, the Dean of Student Life and Engagement, to present their concerns on February 19. The grievance was filed against three administrators most responsible for carrying out the cuts--SCCC President Mildred Ollée, Vice President Ron Hamberg and Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities Audrey Wright. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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