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You don't have to be a campus
politics junkie to know about the dire budget situation we face.
Proposals are flying left and right about how to deal with the
significant shortfall we anticipate for the 2003-04 fiscal year.
However, when we are talking about the need to cut multiple millions of
dollars from our budget, debates over the merits of our funding a
literary magazine, or flying administrators to Study Abroad sites to
"observe" are small potatoes.
Vice
President Larry Serot should be praised for laying out a detailed plan
of what he sees as a possible solution. Larry's
"Solution" claims to work the small-potato angle for all it is
worth: proposed cuts in supplies, travel budgets, advertising,
institutional memberships, and the like are included. Also
included are more large cuts in classes offered (read: adjunct
lay-offs), as well as cuts in student workers and relief employees.
Also included are tapping of surplus revenues from the Professional
Development Center and rents from the about-to-be-acquired medical
center next to the ACTC.
However, he
claims, this is still millions short of what is needed.
So, in
addition, his solution calls for any and all increases in the cost of
medical benefits to be passed on to the covered employees!
Wait, it
gets better. No employees would get any increase in pay due to
them for advancing in step/column, nor would there be any
reclassification/reorganization for classified employees. In other
words, people who merit raises wouldn't get them. To top it off,
he also wants to reduce salaries across the board for all full-time
employees.
Speaking
for myself, I can't stomach his proposal to trash the college's
long-held commitment to allow employees to choose the best
medical insurance option for themselves and their families, without
having to ask if they can afford it. I especially fear for my
fellow employees who earn far less than I do and can't shrug off being
asked to pay part of their premiums, along with higher co-pays and
prescription costs. This issue is the "third rail" of
GCC politics and contributed in part to the recent removal from office
of two of our trustees. Surely Larry isn't suicidal, right?
So, what
about freezing step and column increases? I don't know who gave
him the impression that this was something acceptable to the
faculty. A general reduction in salaries for full-time employees
at least maintains each one's relative position. But withholding
increases earned through extra study and gained experience not only
unfairly withdraws the incentive for doing so, but it distorts the
relative positions of full-time faculty. Likewise, not allowing
classified employees to be paid for the work they are actually doing,
through the reclassification process, is exploitation pure and simple.
That leaves
us with his proposal for a general salary cut for full-time employees.
Sparing cuts to part-time faculty is in keeping with the spirit of the
Part-Time Equity funding the college has enjoyed the last couple of
years, and this progressivism should be encouraged. However, it
should be extended in the other direction as well. In order for a
full-timer salary cut to be accepted, management should cut to a greater
degree their bloated salaries. As Larry's proposal would narrow
the gap between
full-time and part-time faculty, this would narrow the gap between
full-time faculty and management, which in recent years has exceeded
traditional amounts.
Such a move
would also establish Larry's credibility. Many people on campus
suspect that there are hidden reserves, underbudgeted
income, overbudgeted expenses and the like lurking in the college
budget. If there aren't, cutting his own (and his colleagues')
salaries would help signal that. It is also important for
credibility that this cut be done before
cuts are demanded of non-management employees, rather than issued as
promises for the
future.
Thus, I
call on the administration to cut its own high salaries five
percent—effective July 1, 2003.
Since no one knows how many years Sacramento's budget woes will
drag on, this may not be the last salary cut made around here. It
should be the first, however. &
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