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Schools

Cabrillo Officials Want Student Input at Budget Meetings

College Planning Council wants students to know about its open-door policy in budget process.

The absence of student involvement in the Cabrillo College budget process is a concern to many on the College Planning Council, according to Jill Gallo, the school's coordinator of nursing.

“Many [students] were under the impression this meeting was closed to them,” Gallo said.

The college's council agendas are sent by email to all staff and student senators, but that leaves nearly 17,000 in the dark, unless they check the council’s website.

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The Student Senate was represented Wednesday by president Theo Offei, but few other students attended.

“The reason I’m going is to represent the students,” said Offei before the meeting, “but also to go with the flow [and observe].”

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The Student Senate for California Community Colleges recently passed a Cabrillo proposal to mandate that any fee increases are spent at schools, rather than slipping into the general fund.

With fees already jumping from $26-$36 for 2011-12, the resolution could prevent about $100 million in cuts statewide. The resolution’s ultimate fate in the state Legislature was unclear Wednesday, but Cabrillo President Brian King did offer some comfort.

“The short answer is we get to keep the $10, instead of it being used for prisons or other things, as it has in the past,” said King.

However, there is not enough student involvement for many charged with cutting budgets that affect students most. Stephanie Stainback, president of the Classified Workers Union, agreed that more students need to be informed that the meetings are open to everyone.

While UC Santa Cruz administrators had a meeting Tuesday night with students to collaborate about budget cuts there, at Wednesday’s college council meeting in Aptos, students could be counted on one hand. This was unacceptable to many in attendance, with accounting instructor Michael Booth urging students to take more of a role in budget discussions.

“This is your school, and what you say [is] powerful,” he said to Student Senate secretary Gaby Avila, as she sat at her desk across the hall from the meeting.

Issues like moving the bookstore or changing to an online format with assigned book pick-up times are decisions to which students can offer the most workable solutions, Booth said.

King said he would look into ways of informing more students about the open-door policy at the meetings in the future.

The next budget meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. 

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