SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif- Cuesta College has had two power outages in a little over a week. The school scheduled an update and repair for December due to old lines, but is now rushing the work for this weekend. It is a problem adding to the list for the school.
Earlier this year the school faced a 3-million dollar budget shortfall, and having to repair power lines it's only going to hurt more. "It's extremely painful plus deferred maintenance dollars from the state stopped a couple years ago," said Cuesta College Vice President Toni Sommer.
This year the college had to cut 30 part-time faculty jobs and over the past 3 years over 350 classes. The possibility of losing its accreditation looms over the school as well. Earlier this week a team from the accreditation commission came to the college to conduct interviews, and the school had a plan ready for them.
"We updated our two year education master plan, updated our 10 year facility plan, developed and updated a strategic plan, a fiscal plan, an enrollment plan, an EEOC plan, as well as a resource development plan," said Sommer.
It is something some students at Cuesta feel comfortable with. "They have been in danger of losing their accreditation for a long time, I think they will work together, they have a committee fixing the problems," said Danica Leonard, a student.
The school will know early next year whether Cuesta keeps its accreditation. @
