Town Hall Followup - June 28, 2012

 

Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to be in touch to follow up on the town hall meeting from last
week.

Thanks to the many who participated in last week's "different kind of
budget town hall" -- no PowerPoint, and lots of interactive conversation.
We have received positive feedback and many good ideas emerged, both for
ways to reduce costs as well as to increase enrollment to regain some
revenue. As promised, I brought proposals from the town hall to today's
district BROC meeting, the second of three scheduled.

One idea that surfaced to strong support is ensuring our local communities
are aware of state funding issues that directly affect the college's
budget. We will be working on plans for this over the summer. It is very
helpful that our own Institute of Community and Civic Engagement (ICCE)
has been given a second $100,000 grant from the Santa Clara County
Registrar of Voters to register and mobilize young people to vote. In the
fall, ICCE interns will work with other De Anza students on a voter guide
to help students understand the issues in the fall election. They will
also organize a voting forum for the college. I strongly encourage you to
participate.

As I mentioned in my previous message, we will continue to work through
the summer on preliminary budget proposals, which the PBTs will send to
College Council this Thursday. In the fall, we will provide additional
opportunities, like last week's interactive town hall, to participate in
the process and to have a space for discussion about the various and
deeply felt impacts of the budget.

Thank you for your participation in the town hall and the budget
deliberations, and for your work on behalf of our students all year long.
I hope to see you on Saturday at graduation.

Sincerely,
Brian Murphy