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Dear Faculty and Staff,
As we approach the holiday season
and look forward to the New Year, thank you for your many contributions
to the lives and futures of our students. During these last six months,
as I have joined you on campus in classrooms, at meetings, in the
halls, and at community events, I marvel at the breadth and depth of
expertise we have, how we leverage that expertise to increase
educational opportunity and success for our students, and how much we
are able to accomplish. Even though we find ourselves in the midst of a
state budget crisis that is historic in proportion, the indomitable
spirit and keen intellect of Foothill-De Anza gives us reason to be
thankful, especially at this time of the year.
Here are just three examples of excellence and opportunity prominent across our district in which we can all take pride:
•
Student retention and success rates that far exceed the state average,
whether we look at transfer, degrees, workforce preparation, or a host
of other indicators.
• Newly renovated classrooms and visionary design and construction in
new buildings to increase our capacity by 20% to increase access for
students over the next 30 years.
• Emergence of a research culture to help us make more informed
decisions based on best practices in instruction and student services.
Thank
you for contributing to the unparalleled learning environment at our
colleges. Our dedication to educational quality continues to guide us
in all that we do. Today marks my 161st day as chancellor. It is a
privilege to lead and serve you in this capacity. On our opening day, I
said that our biggest challenge would be to advance the quality of
student learning with less and less funding from the state. This
remains our greatest challenge.
Last year when we learned that the state was $34 billion in debt, we
stretched our dollars to the fullest extent possible, adapting to
mid-year cuts followed by a partial, but inadequate, restoration of our
base funding. Although we worked as diligently and as intelligently as
we could, by year's end we were unable to avoid painful reductions in
personnel and "B" budgets. We made difficult choices that included
increasing compensation for our employees and absorbing the
skyrocketing cost of health and welfare benefits for yet another year.
We ended last year by balancing our budget with $7 million in one-time
funds that we would need to provide in our base budget this year. This
means that we must reduce our operating budget by $7 million in this
fiscal year in addition to covering the increased cost of educating our
students.
We
began 2003-04 with some major changes at the state level: a new
governor and an ongoing financial crisis that may be as much as a $24.8
billion shortfall. We also learned that we would need to reduce our
budget by an additional $5 million due to the increased costs of health
and welfare benefits, no PERS backfill from the state, step and column
increases, and other costs that Mike Brandy, our new vice chancellor
for business services, has outlined in the many meetings and forums he
has held on the campuses and at Central Services.
This fall, many faculty and staff have generated important ideas and
suggestions to help us bring our expenses in line with our revenues.
These suggestions are now being considered in all of our governance
discussions. During winter quarter, we will refine these suggestions
and move ahead with an implementation plan that is flexible and will
change as we get better information from the state about our fiscal
situation for the remainder of the academic year.
In November, we welcomed to Foothill-De Anza three trustees, Andrea
Leiderman, Betsy Bechtel and Hal Plotkin who will take office on
December 15. With Sandy Hay, Paul Fong and our student trustees Sarah
Wiehe and Adam Welch, we will benefit from their commitment to our
mission, their advocacy at the state level, and their leadership to
advance Foothill-De Anza's legacy of excellence and opportunity.
This fall, we educated as many students as we could without
compromising the quality of what we do. Even so, we turned away
thousands of people who just simply couldn't get the classes they
needed because we could not go much beyond the state-imposed cap on our
funding, despite our intense desire to do so. In the last few weeks, we
learned that the California Community Colleges have turned away more
than 175,000 students across the state. We also learned that mid-year
budget cuts are coming, as reported in the newspapers. So far Governor
Schwarzenegger's proposal has left intact funding for the state's 108
community colleges. His finance director, Donna Arduin, told lawmakers
that the two-year schools "have not been utilized to the fullest extent
possible to provide California students with higher education."
(Sacramento Bee, November 26, 2003) Our next touch-point in these
budgetary challenges comes in early January when the governor releases
his budget for 2004-05.
This
month I attended several board meetings in Sacramento. Discussions
focused on methods to prepare for further reductions to our budget and
what curriculum the community colleges should be authorized to offer.
Most anticipate further reductions for higher education. In addition,
outgoing state chancellor Tom Nussbaum warned us to be diligent in our
course offerings due to increased scrutiny by the legislature. I came
away from those meetings firm in my belief that the legislature should
restrict its interference in matters of curriculum. I was reminded of
past days in which curriculum 'hit lists' were quickly prepared at the
state level to cut costs, causing us to rebalance our curriculum for
little good reason. In the months ahead we will work aggressively to
increase the funding we receive from the state from Proposition 98. At
the same time, we will seek to limit legislative interference in the
curriculum, an area that is rightly the purview of the Academic Senate
and our local Board of Trustees.
As we prepare to serve our
students this winter, our greatest challenge is to move forward in the
face of uncertainty with a goal to preserve excellence and opportunity.
We don't have all the information we need, but we will bring you the
best information we have as the months unfold and we adjust our plans
accordingly. Many of you have asked me: what can I do? Let me suggest
the following ways in which you can be most helpful as we address the
challenges ahead of us.
1. Focus on our primary mission of
excellence and opportunity by giving our students the best possible
education with the resources that we do have.
2. Show one another how much we value our students and our staff.
3.
Accomplish the essential elements of our work. If it's not instruction,
service to students or critical infrastructure work, postpone it until
we have more resources.
4. Seek agreement as a result of negotiations and make the tough decisions together.
5. Generate additional revenues through enterprise programs.
6. Hire the minimum number of faculty and staff until our funding is stabilized.
7. Inform the legislators about our budgetary needs.
At
times like this, it is important to let our colleagues know that we
appreciate them. It is often the little things that make a difference.
A group chaired by Kim Chief Elk of Human Resources is looking at
various ways to promote employee well-being. She says: "During tough
times, special care and attention must be taken. It is important for
employees to sense their significance not only for the work they
perform but for who they are individually. At this time, it is critical
for each person to feel valued." Please take a moment to let your
colleagues know that you care.
In the months ahead, please
contribute in all the ways you can. Keep yourself informed as we move
ahead to accomplish our educational and financial goals. We will be
working closely with the college and district governance groups to
bring the best of our plans forward and implement our budgetary changes
based on criteria that best meet the needs of our students, first and
foremost. This is a difficult time for us. You can help by actively
participating in the recommendations made through our participatory
governance processes; keeping yourself updated through meetings,
e-mails and budget advisories; curbing rumors by calling your dean,
program director, vice presidents, the presidents, vice chancellors or
me; and by staying focused on our educational mission and purpose.
Thank
you for making a difference in the lives of our students. Together, we
will weather these difficult times and build for the future. Please
feel free to communicate your ideas and suggestions as we move forward
in the New Year. With the holiday season already here, take time to
enjoy what we have. Take time for yourself and your family. Remember to
take an occasional look into the eyes of a student to remember why we
chose Foothill-De Anza as the place to make our mark. Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Martha J. Kanter
cc: Board of Trustees
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