Funding for Cabrillo College

Cabrillo College is undergoing some serious budget cuts. So - what are we looking at here?

We're looking at somewhere between a $4 million - $8 million deficit (sources below), depending on whether lottery and tax revenues projected in the governor's budget proposal come to pass. Cabrillo's enrollment is at an all-time high as they are struggling to serve a flood of displaced workers that are seeking to upgrade their job skills. I am currently trying to find a list of all of the classes that they had to cut this semester.

However, here is my own personal story:

I had enrolled in several journalism classes this semester. The day is Sunday, the day right before the start of the semester. I decided to double check my schedule using their hawk talk phone system. I was faced with this: You are not currently registered for any courses.

I got out the schedule of classes and tried to re-enroll for the classes I had wanted to take and received this reply: "This course has been canceled."

I was not notified about my classes being cut. Fortunately, I was able to find several classes that I needed to take that were still available.

I went into the Cabrillo College Foundation. The Cabrillo College Foundation pays for everything that the state doesn't cover and has been established as long as cabrillo has. I spoke with Eileen Hill, who works there and supervises various donations that come in through the college. I wanted to know about the Journalism Department and what kind of funding we're looking at for that. Apparently, there is a group that is donating around $10,000 every year for the journalism department which it seems (this is a speculation) is the reason that the journalism department is still running strong.


So, here's the short story: the journalism department is facing extinction from Cabrillo College. Last Tuesday, the governing board met at the Sesnon house to discuss the future of journalism. They are undergoing some serious cuts and we will have to wait to see the future of journalism at Cabrillo.

Sources:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_11614415
http://www.cabrillo.edu/associations/foundation/support.html
http://www.cabrillo.edu/academics/journalism/
http://www.cabrillo.edu/services/marketing/budget_center_updates0822Oct.html
http://www.cabrillo.edu/associations/boardoftrustees/Agenda6-4-07.htm

An Introduction to This Blog

A daily newspaper has accepted my application for an internship. I found it odd at how quick they were to take me on. I spoke to [editors name] who said that no one had applied for an internship in roughly four months. There was one student who took an internship position with them and showed up for two days never to be seen again.

I heard a rumor recently that the [newspaper] might be going out of business. I did a fact check on this and could not find anything to back up this fact. If anyone has any sources for this rumor it would be greatly appreciated.

This brings me to my next subject: blogs. Blogs seem to be the dominating force in where people seek out their news. I think that this is odd seeing as these blogs are not credible news sources for the most part. A fact that isn't backed up with two or more sources should be taken as a rumor - not fact.

I would like to make for myself a profession in journalism. It's more than a profession to me - it's finding the truth and spreading it. Truth is a powerful thing, and ideally, more truth will grow from the seeds of truth that we plant. We live in the age of information - practically anything is right at our fingertips. Unfortunately, this also promotes much misinformation. Misinformation is a dangerous thing. It is my goal for this blog, and for my future, to promote the truth exclusively with anything that I write. If you are reading this and find any hypocrisy or misinformation within my words, I would appreciate any criticism or feedback relating to this issue.

May the truth be with us all.