I work as an instructional dean in a California Community College. In
1994, we had to cut 10% from our operating budget in one year, this after
5 successive years of budget cuts that left us no choice but to eliminate
positions -- 40 in all in the district -- mostly classified but also
faculty and administration. We were not adequately prepared for the
logistics of downsizing and watched as our various information and
evaluation systems that were supposed to have helped us in making informed
decisions turned out to be useless. In theory, when one cuts 40
positions, one would assume that some things no longer get done. In the
case of the teaching faculty, that was partly true. You let the only
Fashion Merchandising instructor go and you pretty much eliminate the
program -- at least you think so. (That's another story.) In the case of
the classified and administration, I can't think of many tasks that we
truly eliminated. We just ended up spreading them around the remaining
staff and they/we worked harder because we couldn't step back in the
middle of all that trauma and redesign systems. That came later and has
been a slow process, made slower still by the fact that people resist new
systems. They prefer to spend their energy trying to get back to the old
one. There's a whole lot more I could say, but I guess I see a disconnect
between the ideal and the real at least based on my experience. It was a
humbling experience and a very "teachable moment," if you will. I now
have a profound respect for the strengths -- and weaknesses -- of systems
as complex as the one in which I work. Higher ed is very complex and
highly stratified so it is a challenge. Harriett.
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