Santa Rosa Junior College postpones summer registration after uproar over cancellation of classes

Santa Rosa Junior College President Frank Chong on Friday morning postponed summer registration just hours after the school announced Thursday evening that many of its summer classes would be canceled to close a multimillion budget shortfall.

Chong, in an unusually blunt and conciliatory email, said he erred in cutting the summer classes without first consulting with students, faculty and staff members, who inundated him with dozens of emails after the announcement about summer classes was made in an email to faculty about 4 p.m. Thursday.

“Leading SRJC during these turbulent times is challenging,” Chong wrote in the email Friday. “Quite honestly, I am not afraid to admit I made a mistake. I own it and will try to learn from it and not make that mistake again.”

The cuts come in the midst of tense contract negotiations with faculty members, many of whom have voiced dismay over leadership of the college.

Chong said he has since reached out to faculty senate and union leaders to work together to trim $9.1 million from this year’s budget.

“You can’t lose the faculty,” he said in an interview from his office Friday. “I really respect and value them. A decision was made that was not done correctly and I’ve asked for them to help correct it.”

Mary Kay Rudolph, senior vice president of student affairs, sent out the email Thursday announcing the summer class cuts and referring to an earlier, March 27 email from Chong about the school’s budget crisis.

The cuts affected all non-online classes except those offered in public safety fields, health sciences, athletics and high school equivalency programs, as well as one mathematics course.

“As President Chong indicated, we unfortunately cannot continue to maintain a ‘large college level’ of course offerings at a time when there are simply not enough students signing up for classes; the prudent approach needed is to ‘right size’ the college,” Rudolph wrote. “The immediate need is to reduce the number and type of classes offered during summer 2018, and to do so before students begin enrolling on April 2nd and wind up being displaced due to class cancellations.”

The cancellation “has put my academic success in jeopardy and will adversely impact my financial security,” SJRC student Ursula von Ritter wrote to Chong on Thursday. The single mother said it would postpone her plans to complete required courses that make her eligible for non-deferrable scholarships at the University of Michigan, where she is set to attend this coming fall. Postponing completion of those SJRC classes, she said, “I will lose my scholarships; without these scholarships, I will be unable to afford tuition and will lose my chance to study at the University of Michigan.”

Check back on this developing story for updates.