Fine arts classes might be cut next semester due to their high costs and smaller number of students.

“The arts tend to be more expensive to teach,” said Dr John Gerhold, department chair of the Fine and Performing Arts at Bakersfield College.

In addition to the high cost of equipment and supplies needed for music and theater classes, Gerhold explained how art classes are more likely to be impacted by the budget crisis.

“English classes are required for everybody’s program whether they are art, biology or psychology majors,” he said, ” so those classes required only for a particular major are more likely to be cut especially if it is a small major where you don’t have that many students.”

With three classes already canceled in his department since the beginning of this semester, Gerhold said that “cuts probably won’t affect faculty or students for the spring semester.”

However, for the fall, things seem uncertain due to the major reductions community colleges face because of the state deficit.

“We don’t know about next year but we expect to have to cut about 10 percent (collegewide) from what we are spending for next year,” Gerhold said.

Even though BC has encountered financial difficulty in the past, it has not faced the type of reductions being discussed for next year, Gerhold said.

“This particular budget crisis sounds like we probably will lose jobs, not just faculty, perhaps administrators, ” he said. “Certainly, we will lose classes.”

Some courses that are considered valuable for students but not indispensable are more likely to be cut from programs.

“We are asked to look at what classes do we have to offer in order to maintain the integrity of the program,” he said.

But for Gerhold reducing classes will only make matters worse.

“Because the fees are going up, that already hurts the students, so obviously reducing the options they have for classes hurts them again.”

Instead, he suggested looking first at other ways to make budget cuts without reducing the number of classes.

“There are a lot of things the college does that are not instructional programs. Hopefully they will look at those just as closely as everything else.”