CHAPARRAL

Bonding and saving a few classes along the way

by Alex Leon, Office of Communications, Marketing, and Foundation

I don’t always recognize their faces but that doesn’t matter. What I do recognize, as they push dollar bills into my hand so they can cheer on their friends and colleagues at student, staff and faculty basketball games this fall, is that adversity has a new name for a lot of us on campus.

It is called doing anything we can to save the classes at Glendale College.

Using a sports analogy, the score is 420 classes cut over the past two years and just two saved this fall. But ask any one of those students in the beginning English as a Second Language class and the math class that were resurrected, and they might say that they feel like they have just won the lottery for continuing education.

Blaming the budget crisis that has affected education up and down the state of California provides us all with a popular target to vent our anger. But rather than expending energy in a negative way and pointing fingers, pro-activism to do something about the problem is gaining a lot of momentum on campus.

“The campus community has really come together for this cause, and although the amount of money raised and classes saved isn’t overly significant, it does show that we have a lot of people on campus who are working hard to participate and find solutions to this problem,’’ said Steve White. “It cost about $3,500 to pay an instructor to teach one semester-long class at the college, and so far almost $10,000 has been raised through basketball games, clothing sales, instructors taking students to television tapings and payroll deductions by staff and faculty.’’

Please call the Foundation office at x5199 if you are interested in taking a payroll deduction for the Save the Classes fund or you have a fundraising idea to benefit this project. &