College Cancels Summer Classes

Imperial Valley College has cancelled its 2011 Summer School for all but a select group of specific training courses.

The college administration has also recommended to the IVC Board of Trustees a workforce reduction, which if approved Wednesday, would eliminate more than 12 fulltime classified employee positions.

The recommendations are being driven by the requirements to balance the college’s 2011-12 budget in the face of California’s state budget crisis. The current budget draft projects a 9.1 percent reduction in state revenue and a $3.5 million expense to revenue gap that needs to be closed in order to balance the budget and have a board-required 6 percent reserve.

IVC President Ed Gould alerted students about the summer school cancellation in a letter Friday, emailed to 16,000 students, sent to the media and posted on social media sites.

"As you may know, public higher education in California is facing drastic budget reductions for the third year in a row. Even though we have struggled through three years of these cuts, Imperial Valley College has been committed to meeting the educational needs of our students," Gould told the students.

"Unfortunately, for 2011-2012, the state will be substantially reducing the number of student enrollments that they will fund for community colleges. We are deeply disappointed by this decision."

The only summer courses that will be offered will be specific offerings funded by either the Workforce Development Act or the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Paramedics training also will continue. Students who will have summer classes will be contacted directly by IVC staff and there will be no summer course schedule printed.

Some of the staff reductions could be rescinded later this spring, depending upon the outcome of negotiations with employee bargaining units or if state is better than expected. Proposed reductions come from departments across the campus that includes the President’s office, Business Services, Information Technology and Academic Services.

"This is a horrible time for California’s Community College Students," Gould said. "IVC is the latest in a number of California community colleges that are drastically reducing or eliminating this year’s summer school.

Depending upon the final state budget, IVC could lose up to 2183 students next year. "The best case state budget—requiring a cut of 6.4 percent—would result in a loss of 697 students," Gould said.

"Be assured that IVC will continue to remind state legislators to emphasize the importance of fully funding community colleges to meet the critical educational needs of our students," Gould noted in his letter.