Southwest College Class Cuts: False Alarm
By Jonathan Arkin
Corsair Staff Writer

An alarming report that Los Angeles Southwest Community College had cut almost half its fall schedule proved to be an error, as the president of the college revealed in a press release yesterday.

The discrepancy is reported to have created mistrust and a breakdown of communication between the school’s administration and its student body organization.

Southwest President, Dr. Audrey Levy, had allegedly announced last week that 41 percent of the Fall 2002 classes were to be cut from the school’s scheduled and published classes. Coming on the heels of a budget stalemate that has kept thousands of students in the Los Angeles Community College District from receiving timely financial aid payments, news of the cut prompted some at Southwest’s Associated Students Organization to take action. The ASO asked Dr. Levy to reinstate the classes and evaluate the students’ need for classes the second week of the semester.

Now, it is reported that the actual cuts will amount to only 13 percent of the originally planned semester’s offerings at Southwest. The ASO representative April Lawrence maintained that this news was not shared with the students.

“We believe that an institution, which exists to educate, should attack classroom instruction only as an absolute last resort,” the communiqué stated. “We hold firm that without students in classrooms there is no justification for spending taxpayer’s money on anything else.”

The ASO statement went on to mention budget excesses such as high-paid private consultants, corporate retreats and the hiring of new administrators. However, the President’s rebuttal letter pointed to a $3 million dollar budget shortfall that forced not only the cancellation of unfilled, low enrollment class sections and some vacant administrative posts. The letter also restated the college’s pledge to help students plan alternative schedules that would enable them to meet their academic needs.