Lassen Community College needs to move forward to find a workable solution

No one should doubt in the least the very hard and difficult decisions facing Lassen Community College now that it’s looking at an unexpected estimated $2.4 million budget shortfall. And there isn’t much time to find a solution as the institution needs to turn in a budget to the state in a little more than a month.

Last week the college administration offered a proposal to the college board of trustees that included some lay offs and not filling some vacant positions, but the trustees in their wisdom rejected that idea. Instead, the trustees are looking to the greater college community and staff to get their ideas about how to solve this dire fiscal crisis.

If there is a bright note to this quandary, it’s that everyone seems to be focused on moving forward toward a solution rather than looking backward and playing the blame game.

We encourage everyone at the college — the administration, the faculty, the classified staff and the students to pull together for the common good and explore solutions that work for everyone across the campus.

Now is not the time for axe grinding or picking at old scabs or trying to play gotcha. It’s time for the entire college community to come together and figure out how to deal with the issues facing them. For Lassen Community College, that old saw, “United we stand, divided we fall,” probably couldn’t be truer right now.

It’s time to pull together and get it done.