SAN MARCOS — Over 50 people gathered at the campus library March 12 to show their support for a statewide ‘March in March’ rally in Sacramento, calling for the state to keep its promise of funding higher education.
The event was co-hosted by union leaders from the Council of Classified Employees (CCE) and Palomar Faculty Federation (PFF). Many of the Palomar workers linked the event with the CCE’s dispute over a cost of living adjustment (COLA) and a rising number of unfilled classified positions.
“For half of the school, every employee is doing two to three people’s jobs,” said Calvin Lew, a Palomar student-turned Information Services Help Desk employee who has worked for the college for 28 years.
The rally called for more staffing and state funding, and sought to highlight the important role that classified staff play at the school.
Marcela Gomez has been a student adviser in the English as a Second Language (ESL) department for 28 years.
“Staff makes this college run, without staff we would not have students in the classroom, we wouldn’t have a clean school, we wouldn’t have student support services,” Gomez said.
Greg DePies, a data support specialist in Instructional Services, echoed how essential the staff are to Palomar’s operations.
“The staff directly affects the students and the quality of the students’ education that they receive. We are the folks who schedule the classes. We are the folks who assist in counseling. We are the janitors. We are the people who keep the school running,” DePies said.
DePies also said that the rising costs in Southern California make the lack of a COLA for the 2025-26 school year especially difficult for classified staff.
Speeches from the co-presidents of PFF, Lawrence Lawson and William Dalrymple calling for an increase in state funding ignited chants from the crowd for a “bigger pie.” Dalrymple criticized the maximum yearly salary of $26,690 available to part-time faculty who take on a full course load.
“The promise of higher education should not depend on the poverty of those who teach it,” said Dalrymple.
Another student-turned classified worker from the ESL department, Alex Medina, said Palomar’s free programs supported him along his nine-year journey.
“Being a student, I see how the programs in the school support their community and their students as well,” Medina said. “It doesn’t matter the background, doesn’t matter the ethnicity, doesn’t matter if they’re younger or they’re older generations — they’re all respected and all given an opportunity to go to school and learn something new.”
Rally speakers talked about the importance of making enrollment and availability of classes the priority for the college.
“The budget relies on enrollment and everything we can do to increase enrollment is what we should be doing: keeping classes open, not cutting classes, hiring more classified staff so they can help students enroll in classes,” Lawson said.
Mathematics professor Shelbi Hathaway said the effects budget cuts have on students can already be seen. She stated that it is difficult for faculty to do what is best for their students when classes are being cancelled due to low enrollment.
Hathaway said fewer in-person sections have made managing scheduling harder for students and faculty in the mathematics department. She added that while departments push for more online classes for increased enrollment numbers, those classes aren’t alway the educational experience students want or need.
“We’re filling more of our online, and we’re now closing more and more of our face-to-face, and I feel like that that’s missing the point of education and the community part of being in a community college,” Hathaway said.
