SCCC Against Cuts to Education

Rally Against Education Cuts at SCCC

2009-03-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

!!PLEASE DISPERSE WIDELY!!

Rally Against Education Cuts at SCCC

Thursday, March 12

Rally Begins at 2:00 PM at the South Plaza

Enter the Board of Trustees Meeting at 3:00 PM

Seattle Central Community College

Here is the schedule:

2:00-2:40 Speakers TBA (students and faculty)
2:40-3:00 Open Mike
3:00-3:?? Enter the Broadway Performance Hall and gather in the Conference Room where the Board of Trustees meeting is located

"...Chancellor Wakefield recently sent out an email to faculty stating that due to unexpectedly high enrollment a total of $700,000 dollars will be dispersed to Central, North, and South Seattle Community Colleges. Each college will receive roughly one-third of the total based on how many full time students are enrolled at each college. For Central, this would cover the cut to instruction [quote copied from below]."

Fellow students and faculty,

Yesterday Campus President Mildred Ollée held a one hour long "forum" regarding budget cuts. Over 70 people packed the room and many had to stand due to lack of seating. Ollée spent the first 40 minutes on her presentation. She only gave us an hour yet she spent 40 minutes of that hour going on and on about how she has no power to reverse the decision to cut instruction by $200,000 for the Spring quarter of 2009. As the saying goes, the buck stops here. Her decision to cut 40 classes results in leaving 100's of students without the classes they need to graduate is absolutely unacceptable!

During the "forum" Ollée said that all classes that were cut have been replaced with either online, video, or correspondence classes. I'm not going to call Ollée a liar, but this simply isn't true. If you take a look at the online Spring 2009 schedule, there you will not find a single 200 level Spanish course. They were all completely cut. The students were left completely high and dry!

When Ollée finally gave us a chance to speak, a student brought up Ollée's mistake. I then commented on administrations ballooning salaries stating that based on the reported 2007 payroll, a 10% cut to full time administrators would easily pay for the $200,000 cut to instruction. Ollée interrupted me many times telling me that a forum is no place for comments and she expects students to raise questions instead. When I tried to ask her why they have decided to cut instruction when their own budget report released last December shows that the school has over $14,000,000 in net assets, she interrupted me declaring "don't go there!" and called me "disrespectful". The students and faculty have done everything within our power to be respectful and administration hasn't reciprocated.

Whats disrespectful is cutting our classes that are required for our transfer! Whats disrespectful is making these decisions behind closed doors without inviting students and faculty to ensure that our academic future would not be threatened!

Chancellor Wakefield, who was recently hired and has an annual salary that exceeds $100,000, recently sent out an email to faculty stating that due to unexpectedly high enrollment $700,000 dollars will be dispersed to Central, North, and South Seattle Community Colleges as an "educational stimulus". Each college will receive roughly one-third of the total. The final decision as to how much each college will receive is based on how many full time students are enrolled at each college. For Central, this would cover the cut to instruction.

Seattle Central does not need to cut its instructional budget! The chancellor sent this out yesterday, March 9, at about 5:30 pm. Restore our classes now!

I have received word that dozens of students will be joining us from the South campus and many from the North campus as well. The coalition calls for dozens more from North and South! The coalition calls for 75+ from Central! The coalition calls for 100+ to join our rally, speak up at the open mike, and enter the Board of Trustees meeting to restore our classes now!

The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Sincerely,

James Bichler
SCCC Student
stopthecutssccc@gmail.com

Rally Against Budget Cuts

2009-03-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

STUDENT LED
STOP THE BUDGET CUTS RALLY

THURSDAY MARCH 12
2:00PM
SCCC SOUTH PLAZA
(Broadway and Pine St.)

Rally followed by 3:00pm SCCD Board of Trustees meeting

Our Demands:
1. No cuts to Classes
2. No Tuition Increases
3. No Layoffs of Staff or Faculty
4. We demand Transparency from School Administrators

Washington State is proposing a 10% budget cut for Seattle Community Colleges! This has resulted in 40 classes being cut from SCCC spring quarter, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. On top of that the legislature has mandated a tuition increase of 5% to 10%. Layoffs and increased fees for campus services are all on the table. This is outrageous! We demand that the Board of Trustees tell the legislature that these budget cuts are unacceptable and demand that the State find more funding. We can't balance the budget on the backs of Students and Staff. Bailout Schools not Banks!

Following the rally we will attend the Seattle Community College District Board of Trustees meeting at 3:00pm in the Broadway performance hall to make our voices heard.

Sponsored by Seattle Central Community College Against Cuts to Education (SCCCACE)

We are Students, Staff, Faculty and concerned community members who oppose state mandated cuts to Seattle Central Community College programs.

E-mail: scccace@gmail.com

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=57553770777

Stop Budget Cuts!

2009-02-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

We are Students, Staff, Professors and concerned community members who oppose state mandated cuts to Seattle Central Community College programs.

Our Demands:
1. No cuts to Classes
2. No Tuition Increases
3. No Layoffs of Staff or Professors
4. We demand Transparency from School Administrators

How you can get invovled:
Next organizing meetings:
Monday March 2nd 1pm
SCCC Room 4115

Thursday March 5th 1pm
SCCC Room 4115

Forum on Proposed Cuts
Wednesday March 4th 10am
Seattle Central Community College Cafeteria (1st floor)
Speakers:TBA
Download a poster for the forum

Contact info: sunsetoranges@gmail.com