Valley College Faculty Voices Opposition to Cuts

About 60 faculty members of Los Angeles Valley College voted Monday to declare their opposition to staffing cuts planned for the school’s spring semester, which the teachers say will seriously diminish the quality of education for the school’s 17,973 students.

The voice vote taken at a faculty meeting in a theater on campus was symbolic, teachers conceded, because it has no binding effect on the administration. However, the college president, Mary Lee, said she would meet today with department heads to discuss compromises.

“I don’t think it’s the most drastic cut we’ve had, but it is bad,” said Pat Allen, acting president of the Valley College local of the American Teachers Federation. “Since Proposition 13, we’ve been cutting and cutting, but when we began there was a little room to cut. Now, we’re cutting essentials. We’re cutting off arms and legs, such as advanced language classes, advanced English courses, history courses, journalism courses. Theater arts has been decimated.”

The average time spent in the classroom by teachers at the school is 15 hours a week, but many instructors only teach part time. In calculating the teaching budget, administrators figure in blocks of 15 hours, called Full Time Equivalents, or FTEs.

Important Courses Cut

The administration proposes a reduction from the 315 FTEs per week to teach all subjects last spring, to 295 FTEs in the spring semester. The faculty has asked that the number be held at 305 FTEs, arguing that important courses are being cut in virtually all areas and that the sections offered for a number of courses are being reduced to the point that students will find it difficult to find classes that fit their schedules.

The cut in class time also causes lower pay for the faculty, both administrators and teachers agree.

Valley College is one of nine two-year colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, and one of three in the San Fernando Valley. All the schools are facing cuts, but teachers said on Monday that they felt Valley College was receiving more than its share. District officials have said that the cuts are distributed according to the schools’ enrollments, which determine how much money each school gets from the state.

The staffing cuts follow an $8.2-million budget reduction by the district’s trustees, which brought the budget for the nine schools down to $216.3 million. Along with instructional time, targets included supplies, cafeteria services and student newspapers.

Lee said that the cuts are needed because enrollment is declining. She said that, in the 1981-1982 school year Valley College had 21,500 students, 3,500 more than it does now.

As the current school year began Aug. 19, Community College District officials predicted that enrollment would be down 13% from the previous fall.