Summit staff report

GROSSMONT COLLEGE – A new Performing Arts Center may rise on campus in the vicinity of Lot 1, partly in recognition that the arts do not simply provide entertainment, they are an important source of employment in California.

Steve Baker, dean for arts, languages and communications, said that the center would serve as a cultural arts magnet for the East County, assuming that voters approve a major bond measure that would be put on the ballot within two years.

Another project proposed for such a construction bond measure would be the remodeling of Grossmont College’s arts complex, with a second floor for offices and the refurbishment of the Hyde Art Gallery, he said.

With 5,000 students enrolled in the courses in Baker’s division, he is responsible for course offerings for approximately one-fourth the 20,000-member student body, the dean said during an impromptu press conference with the Summit on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

The dean reported that a slight uptick in the state’s financial picture has led to the news that he will be able next semester to add four class sections in his division – an average of a half section per department.

Prior to this semester, the arts, languages and communications division was required to eliminate 100 class sections  – part of an overall college-wide cut of some 400 class section in response to California’s  budget crisis.

Given changing definitions of the mission of community colleges, Baker said he felt it fortunate that his division was no harder hit than any of the three other academic divisions at Grossmont College. 

He explained that in previous years the state had assigned three missions to the community colleges: 1) degree programs and college transfers; 2) vocational programs, and 3) community enrichment.

Recently, state officials had decided to eliminate “community enrichment” as one of the stated missions of the community colleges, and to substitute in its place “basic skills” in recognition of the fact that 70 percent of the students admitted to community colleges are not adequately prepared in “reading, writing and arithmetic,” Baker said.

“People thought that meant that the arts would be cut,” Baker said.  However, analysis showed that the arts – particularly the movies and television shows emanating from Hollywood as well as allied fields – are a major sector of the state’s employment picture.   Accordingly, programs in the arts were treated as a form of vocational training.

Before the current semester, Grossmont deans were required to cut 100 class sections from each of the four divisions.  With eight departments in Baker’s division – foreign languages, American Sign Languages, art, music, dance, theatre, Media Communications and Communications – he set out with a goal of cutting an average of 8 ½ classes per department. 

One of the first decisions was to make cuts in areas where there were multiple core classes – for example, in music, his home department, where there were two sections of Music Theory and two sections of Music Theory 2.  “We had to let go of the evening sections of Music Theory,” he said.

Media Communications, one of the smaller departments, did not suffer as many cuts because they would have meant eliminating entire programs, rather than simply cutting down on sections, Baker said.

One of the anomalous statistics this semester was that even though Grossmont College offered fewer classes, its overall enrollment went up.  This was primarily because state colleges were cutting their enrollments, giving students fewer options, he said.

Baker said each community college in the state was allowed to decide for itself how to handle budget cuts.  Whereas some colleges eliminated entire departments, Grossmont preferred to trim a little bit from each department, spreading the burden as equitably as possible.

“Because we did it differently, we are now poised to build back up,” Baker said.

He said another positive factor was passage of state legislation requiring the University of California and the State University and College System to find ways to admit more community college transfers than they had this year.

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