State Senator Tony Strickland met with students and school officials Friday to discuss the most pressing community college issues and what steps the California legislator could take to improve the environment for students amid an acute budget crisis.
Strickland, a Republican who represents California’s 19th District, covering mostly Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, sat in the Scheinfeld Conference Room at City College with Superintendent-President Andreea Serban, board of trustees members Desmond O’Neill and Joan Livingston, student senate members Emily Harrington, Atty Garfinkel and Jason Stanely, among other college officials.
Those in attendance were hopeful Strickland could see the desperate need for fewer cuts in state funding.
“We are the place for all of those who would not be in higher education were it not for us,” Serban said, prefacing the problems the college faces as it struggles trim costs for the next academic year.
“The demand for community colleges has been particularly high in the last three years.”
Student representatives were most concerned with the prospects outside of City College.
“As City College students, most have a goal of transferring to a four-year,” Harrington said. “Proposed fee increases will deter some from pursuing higher education.”
One plan has fees per unit at California’s community colleges escalating to $40, up from the current $26 and already elevated from $20 last fall.
Harrington said the limits on transferable units to UCs and CSUs is also putting more pressure on those forced to stick around City College for one or more semesters than planned because of stricter admissions policies at the universities.
Harrington’s other big issue has been smoking on campus.
The student senate has been discussing efforts to contain smokers, or ban it altogether on school grounds.
“It’s an obvious health risk,” she said. “Our campus would have to hire police to issue tickets though. The bill on the governor’s desk would ban smoking in state parks. Could it be extended to somewhere like SBCC?”
Strickland tried to address all of the points made by Serban and Harrington in the remainder of the 90-minute session. But as far as making transferring easier to navigate, he doesn’t know what options he has to help students.
“I’m happy to work with you if there’s a way to do it,” Strickland said.
But Strickland was able to reassure the same people who described the college’s dire financial situation.
“Budget reform is necessary,” he said. “Reform happens in difficult times.”
Strickland warned that the state’s condition could get worse before it gets better, partly because of use of the one-time federal stimulus funds to pay for some programs.
“It’s like ‘Groundhog Day,'” he said. “We’re living through the same year over and over again.”
The senator said his friend, and current Republican candidate for Governor, Meg Whitman influenced his planned run for state controller in the November election.
“She said, ‘if I win, I need a good CFO I can trust,'” he said. “She wants me to make sure our dollars going to Sacramento aren’t wasted.”
Strickland said he’d fight for community colleges on the state level because he recognized the importance of the system to every job field, especially vocational fields and students who have no intention to transfer.
“Not everyone wants to put a suit on everyday,” he said.
