The Instructional Planning and Budget Team need to finalize recommend cuts for an estimated $2.35 million budget deficit to college council by Nov. 1.

With little time remaining to deal with such a large deficit, interim president Christina Espinoza-Pieb emphasized the deadline, which is approaching quick but with no decisions being made.

If the IPBT does not meet their deadline, all decision making will be passed down solely to Espinoza-Pieb.

“I don’t really have a choice,” Espinoza-Pieb said. “We were hitting our numbers, but now we’re not.”

During the Oct. 16 meeting, football was expected to be voted for viability for elimination, but the team’s presence and pressure at the meeting led to a vote to not eliminate.

Programs that were considered for viable for elimination had a chance to have a discussion with the IPBT during a meeting in the spring quarter so the football team coming in was out of protocol.

Assistant head coach Aidan Campion apologized at the Oct. 23 meeting.

He misunderstood the meeting to be the team’s “last rally” to save the program, he said.

Espinoza-Pieb and the senior staff at De Anza College met Oct. 22 and came up with a plan to help soften the deficit which includes a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan.

The plan meets their goal for the overall $4.6 million deficit, but will be further discussed at next week’s IPBT meeting, Espinoza-Pieb said.

This plan does not, however, include the $3.2 million deficit for the part-time faculty 1320 budget. Espinoza-Pieb is adamant about fighting those cuts.

“I think we’re cutting too deep in 1320 faculty side,” she said. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot if we cut more.”

The next IPBT meeting will be extended to two hours so members can review plans for reduction, said co-chair and vice president of instruction Lorrie Ranck.