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A rancorous campus-wide forum held to address the budget crisis left many confused and angry on Wednesday morning.PCC President Paulette Perfumo said at the forum that the numbers for the next year’s budget are unknown.

“The difficulty in all this is that we don’t know what the final budget will be,” Perfumo said.

There was tension as Suzanne Anderson, assistant professor of social sciences, asked whether the meeting would be able to address what she called the “floating rumors” about pay raises and laying off faculty and staff.

“Why is this meeting scheduled at 8 a.m. this morning and 11 a.m. Thursday, when nobody can be here?” Anderson asked.

Interim Vice President of Administrative Services Mark Zacovic pointed out that there was a substantial crowd in Sexson Auditorium, before confirming that Perfumo had been given a salary raise in December 2008 when the Board of Trustees had renegotiated her contract.

Perfumo addressed another concern as well.

“I’ve been asked about [tuition fees] $60 per unit,” she said. “In talking to Dr. [Jack] Scott, [Chancellor of the California Community Colleges] the feeling is we will end up around $20 or $25 per unit.”

Perfumo did say that she knew that a lot of students were unaware of the Board of Governors Fee Waiver, which allows eligible California residents to have their enrollment fees waived.

Perfumo asked those who attended the forum for ideas on how to reduce spending within all the budget areas. Some ideas she and Zacovic mentioned included no overtime for classified staff and cutting back on security, although they made it clear that nothing was set in stone.

John Woods, the director of the learning assistance center, wanted to know who would be making the decisions once the numbers are final.

“That’s why we’re asking all of you for ideas,” Perfumo said.

Elaborating, Zacovic said, “We haven’t made any final decisions, but the first classes that would be cut are taught by adjunct faculty.”

At the Board of Trustees meeting June 3, a response to the petition that the Faculty Association had produced earlier addressed several claims the FA made.

The FA claimed that current budget cut proposals for PCC would amount to 250 sections lost over the next academic year.

The response was that the district is continuing to review the next year’s budget proposals, and while cutting sections is not the normal response to low-enrolled classes, it may be necessary.

“The decision to reduce sections in addition to low class enrollment has not been made,” the response stated.

The FA petition also claims that Perfumo has been approved by the Board of Trustees to hire another administrator to help in running the daily affairs of the college, and that this is costing the college $230,000. It also claimed that this is the exact opposite of what Chancellor Scott recommended.

The response quoted Scott’s advice that consisted of reducing course sections, avoid replacing retirements and resignations, and to have fewer administrators overseeing large areas.

“Based on current direction by the board of trustees to the president, it is necessary on an interim basis to fill the position of Dean of Educational Services. Because of the plan to not replace the successful internal candidate for the position, the additional annual cost to the district, depending on current salary, will be approximately $30,000,” the response read.

The FA petition complained that PCC has approved over $200,000 in consultants’ fees for Vision 2020, and calls that a “wasteful expense” when PCC is cutting classes.

The response explained that the accreditation standard requires that each college have an “Educational Master Plan” and that currently PCC does not have one.

“Vision 2020 will provide the new Educational Master Plan for the college. Had the college not began the process to create a new Educational Master Plan the college would have been cited during the recent accreditation process,” the response said.

At the forum Wednesday morning, natural sciences secretary Glenna Watterson wanted to know why it had taken so long for the college to acknowledge the crisis and act on it.

“We’re all willing to tighten our belts, but why are we only doing this now when we’ve known it was coming for a year?” Watterson asked.

Others in the crowd voiced their belief that the administration has no plan for the budget crisis.

“I disagree that there hasn’t been a plan,” Perfumo said. “The information changes monthly. We have to do what we [do] based on the information we have at the time.

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