Effective June 30, 24 full-time positions are to be eliminated along with 31 part-time positions. In addition, the special events coordinator will face a 50 percent time reduction, approved by the Foothill-De Anza Board of Trustees on April 5. The employees are members of the Association of Classified Employees, a union that represents support staff at De Anza College.

The Student Success Center alone will lose 36 classified employees.

“I am grieving. We are reorganizing and starting a new Student Success Center in a smaller area to replace what we will lose June 30,” SSC supervisor Mary Browning said.

The director of the Student Success Center, Gregory Anderson, will lose his current position and be placed into an ESL teaching position.

“This decision makes sense to me. I have to approach it in an objective [manner] rather than subjective. I will become a classroom instructor,” Anderson said, “even though that is not what I originally wanted to do, I am grateful that I still have a job.”

De Anza has posted applications online for 16 positions. Of these positions, 10 are for faculty jobs, four are management opportunities and two are non-teaching staff positions. Employees who have been or will be laid off are allowed to apply for these positions given that they have the proper experience requirements.

According to the California Education Code, “employees being laid off can exercise “bumping rights.” If a senior employee is losing his or her job, he or she can replace a junior employee if he or she is qualified for the position.

Mai Dam, program director of the Occupational Training Institute, will be “bumped” on June 30.

“The seniority system makes no sense to me. I worry about the program. I will be fine, but the program will be affected negatively,” Dam said. “I don’t think that when they came up with this seniority program, they thought about the consequences it would have for students. The end result is that students will suffer.”

Another employee, Carmen Pereida, will also see her position eliminated. Pereida is program coordinator of Cooperative Education and will become director of OTI. The Cooperative Education program will be eliminated with its five other employees.

“This is a level transfer into an open position so no bumping rights will have to be exercised. These are really hard times with people being displaced because of a loss of their positions or being forced to bump into another one,” Pereida said, “It is really sad to see this program go. It serves over 185 students. These credits will no longer be offered to students trying to balance work, school and life.”

According to the Board of Trustees meeting minutes, the district saved $2.6 million in workload reductions made to part-time faculty, but is still facing a deficit of an estimated $10.6 million for the next two years.

“The process to reach this point has been open and exhausting and the discussion thoughtful and careful,” District Chancellor Linda Thor said.

Expenses for 2010-11 are projected to exceed revenue by $4.1 million, in addition to the $6.5 million in cuts from the state, according to the board of trustees meeting agenda.

Colleges statewide must meet a fixed student-instructor ratio. Failure to do so will result in state fines. For this reason, many of the layoffs affect administrative services and part-time teaching assistants, economics professor Roger Mack said.

“Based on enrollment, the district must have a minimum of 516 full obligation faculty members. If this is not met, the district is fined,” Vice President of Finance and Educational Resources Letha Jeanpierre said.

“$70,000 for every faculty member under the requirement,” Jeanpierre said. “We are under our obligation. That is why we are hiring faculty and opening up eight positions for the fall.”

“You cannot assume that it is less of a big deal because they are part time. Being laid off is always devastating,” said Anderson. “However, the college recognized and respected the process of laying people off. I think they did it in an appropriate manner. I’m still hopeful for the future.”