Like many of you, I am beginning my first fall quarter in the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. In the seven months since I joined the district, I’ve learned that De Anza College students have a long and proud history of engagement and activism, particularly when it comes to fighting to maintain the quality of higher education.

I started as chancellor here just in time to dive into the worst budget implosion in California’s history. While the state budget is bad news, the way faculty, staff and students rallied together gives me hope. 

As state legislators in Sacramento weighed their options about what to cut, this is what unfolded here: De Anza students organized a tent city on the main quad, marched to Cupertino City Hall, rallied in San Francisco, mounted an art exhibit about student organizing and generally made their voices heard regarding the devastation being wreaked on California public higher education.

In the end, the state’s struggle to close its budget deficit has brought more than $20 million in funding cuts to our district over the past two years. As a result, we have eliminated more than 100 full- and part-time faculty and staff positions at a time when students need our classes and services more than ever. 

But even as we brace for more state budget cuts, I believe our future is bright. The current climate offers an outstanding opportunity to rethink the traditional ways of doing things, to form new alliances, to innovate and relentlessly improve. I believe this budget crisis can help us drive innovation, and take control of our own future. 

The district already has put a number of strategies into place – joining an energy-purchasing consortium to reduce costs; installing large number of solar arrays on campus; aggressively seeking federal, state and foundation grants and stepping up the fundraising efforts of the district’s foundation. The district’s Board of Trustees even placed a parcel tax on the November ballot asking the local community to help fund the colleges for the next six years at a rate of $69 a year for each property owned. 

The future is filled with promise as we advance a vision for Foothill-De Anza’s future. That vision is for accelerated student achievement resulting from effective college-skills development, rigorous program review and seamless pathways.  

To these ends, De Anza College is off to a good start.