The budget ax is back, this time cutting and splintering services for students like never before at Bakersfield College.
BC is faced with major budget cuts due to a shortage in state funds. Students will be affected because counseling, cultural centers and CalWORKS are expected to be reduced or eliminated.
Hours for counseling services will be reduced significantly, creating fewer counseling appointments and extensive waits for students.
On top of that, student orientations for prospective BC students also will not be offered in the summer.
This creates a dilemma given the fact that there are already too few counselors working with a continuous booming population at BC.
What does the college save by cutting hours from counseling services? Only a little more than $20,000, which is not a whole lot, considering the whopping number of appointments being lost, along with students finding themselves unable to decide what classes are necessary to take for graduation.
It’s funny how BC’s mission is supposed to “empower … students and community to succeed by providing exceptional instruction and service in a supportive environment.”
Yet at the same time, these budget cuts in counseling, CalWORKS and cultural centers restrain the college from doing so, contradicting the college’s mission statement.
If students are the college’s top priority, none of these cuts should be made. Other areas should be considered, from administration on down.
Making decisions about where money is to be snipped is never a painless task.
But perhaps BC can target these cuts in areas that do not affect students to the magnitude where it will hinder their educations.
If this is not done, students will find it takes even more time to graduate.