Colleges may face deep cuts

Mike Swanson

Coast Community College District faces more than $1 million in cuts

as a result of allegedly inflating enrollment using high school

students, but district officials expect a state audit will reveal the

district’s innocence.

Ron Berggren, vice chancellor of education, said Golden West

College did offer physical education classes to high school students

for college credit, but they were legitimate college courses.

“As a district, we had an internal audit of [Golden West College,

Orange Coast College and Coastline Community College] and it looked

like we were all right,” Berggren said. “We heard the state might be

auditing some districts, so we wanted to check it out for ourselves

before they did. I think we’re being lumped into a category we don’t

belong in.”

Most of the high school coaches involved in the classes in

question were also adjunct college teachers, and that courses offered

at high schools were also offered at the colleges, Berggren added.

Widely referred to as bridge physical education classes, Berggren

said that term came from Fullerton College and wasn’t used in the

Coast Community College District.

Berggren didn’t have the exact figures of how much each college in

the district would face in cuts, but he said Orange Coast College

wouldn’t be affected.

Erin Cohn, director of public affairs for the district, said the

district has already absorbed the $1.3-million cut, but couldn’t say

for sure how much Golden West College will lose.

“We were prepared to take this cut as we prepared for our ‘03-’04

budget,” Cohn said. “There really aren’t a lot of funds to go around

for a lot of programs.”

The district stopped offering the concurrent courses last summer.

New state legislation, however, is making concurrent enrollment more

clearly defined, which Cohn said may allow the colleges to bring it

back.

Even if a state audit reveals that the district wasn’t in

violation, Cohn doesn’t expect the district to be reimbursed.

“There was a lot of legislative pressure to respond to the

publicity that this issue received late last year,” Cohn said. “We

just need to take it and move on.”