Editor’s note: This is the first in a series on the impact of the budget cuts on Bakersfield College.
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STAFF EDITORIAL: Budget cuts are eating away at The Rip’s news coverage. For 15 years, when journalism students or prospective advertising clients found their way into The Renegade Rip office in Campus Center in the morning, they were greeted with a smile and helped by Robin Johnson. Nowadays, they are more likely to find a locked door.
Students working in the Journalism Program at Bakersfield College are trying to adjust to the transfer of Johnson, a longtime department assistant. Due to budget cuts and a campuswide reorganization of staff, Johnson is now part of a secretarial cluster of classified workers, or “hub.” These hubs consist of staff streamlined into groups to accomplish the duties of multiple departments.
Dean of Student Learning Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, who oversees the Fine Arts hub where Johnson works, said the move is only a small part of what is being experienced around campus.
“We now have buildings where we don’t have support staff, and at one time we did,” Gomez-Heitzeberg said. “While we would love to be able to say, ‘Let’s maintain everything as we have always been able to maintain it,’ this budget reality and the fact that we have fewer bodies to take care of everybody, probably everybody is going to be touched in one way or another.”
Dr. Sandra Serrano, BC president, said last year when the school was attempting to compensate for a $5.4 million budget cut, staff reorganization and service hubs were among the things that needed to be implemented. She said that a number of labs are affected by these cuts because they are dependent on student workers or teaching assistants.
“We’ve had a 33 percent reduction to our student workers in our budget,” Serrano said.
She made it clear that the reduction of service is not isolated just to The Rip.
“We don’t have the resources to hire the same level of support in order to maintain the same number of hours,” she said. “Our library isn’t open the same number of hours. Our cafeteria is not open the same number of hours and we have a tremendous change in the service that is being provided by our cafeteria.”
Kathy Freeman, adviser to The Rip, said that even though Johnson has been transferred, the newspaper will be able to retain some of her services, including the creation of ads.
But Freeman said that Johnson’s absence from the Campus Center office is having a profound effect on Rip students. Due to possible liability, she said, students are not to be left unattended in a classroom. Since Johnson’s transfer, 17 hours have been eliminated from lab time because the office cannot be staffed.
“Students now have greatly reduced access to the instructional lab computers that they need to do the newspaper,” she said. “Instead of planning coverage according to an event’s news value, students are basing decisions on how much time they have to produce a newspaper. Some stories may not get into print or may not have the coverage they deserve because students have limited access to the office.”
In addition to Johnson’s loss, the Journalism Program also is trying to compensate for the elimination of its teaching assistant position. Rod Thornburg, a professional photographer, will no longer have a position with The Rip instructing photographers when he returns from military duty. He has worked in the program since 1983.
“Rod Thornburg is on military leave, and after serving his country he will come back to BC and find himself transferred to another area other than journalism,” Freeman said. “I can’t imagine how he will feel about that. His love is photography.”
Johnson now works with two other staffers in Fine Arts. She said the position is like learning a new job, which includes clerical work for Fine Arts and Family and Consumer Education, as well as supporting journalism.
“It is difficult being away (from The Rip) because you’re so far removed from it that it’s like you’re not even a part of it,” she said. “I worked there for 15 years and I can honestly say I was never bored because the job was so varied. I enjoyed working with the students, I miss that the most. But things change and you have to change with them.”
Johnson no longer works directly with students: one student, Jarrod Graham, Rip copy editor and former editor in chief, said the Journalism Program has helped him get a part-time job on the copy desk at The Bakersfield Californian. He believes Johnson’s transfer hurts the staff.
“Robin has been the workhorse of the program for so many years. Losing her really impacts our ability to make deadline,” he said.
The Rip already has reduced the number of publications per semester from 10 to seven to deal with the budget cuts.
“We’ve suffered massive setbacks. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get through this,” said Managing Editor Victor Garcia.