For 10 years, Susan Dado worked as an administrative assistant in the Ranger Academy at the Public Safety Training Center (PSTC) in Windsor. Then in late March 2010—without much advanced notice—Dado was “repurposed” as the administrative assistant to the manager at Shone Farm in Forestville. “My job description is completely different,” she said.

With the recession still on the forefront, it may be better to stay in a job without opportunities for advancement for the sake of having a job. However, for SRJC employees, the only option may be getting transferred to a different department.

SRJC President Dr. Robert Agrella’s proposal of re-engineering SRJC gradually went into effect this spring, with several employees getting moved to other departments between the Santa Rosa and Petaluma campuses. Several departments have already made the necessary changes in hopes of better serving the college community.

Agrella stated in an e-mail sent to staff and faculty earlier this year, re-engineering “is not meant to eliminate regular faculty, staff or administrative personnel, but rather to ‘repurpose’ them as appropriate.” Many long-time employees, who were repurposed, have taken it in stride.

In another e-mail sent to staff and faculty in Jan. 2010, Agrella explained how much of a loss SRJC could face if it didn’t start re-engineering. According to Proposition 98, 40 percent of the state budget (i.e. the deficit) goes to K-14 education and approximately 10 percent of the 40 percent goes to the community college system budget. SRJC’s share of the community college system budget is approximately two percent. With the state’s annual budget deficit at approximately $20 billion, SRJC’s share of this deficit would be a loss of $16 million, from a current district-wide budget of almost $129 million.

What exactly lead Agrella to propose re-engineering at SRJC? “We did it because of the problems we’re having with the budget and the difficulties of trying to keep up with what’s happening on a state-wide basis. We’re trying to be sure that the quality of SRJC remains high during some very difficult economic times,” Agrella said.

According to Dr. Mary Kay Rudolph, vice president of Academic Affairs and Student Services, re-engineering was the result of not wanting regular employees to lose their jobs.

“We had made a commitment to our regular faculty and classified managers that we were going to try to keep their jobs through this horrible economic downturn,” Rudolph said. “That might mean that you will have to do some things a little differently, so that’s kind of where the idea was sparked.”

Administrators first began by repurposing the administrative assistants because it was the easiest position to tackle, Rudolph said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in Academic Affairs, Student Services, Business Services, in Petaluma, Shone Farm or here, if you’re an administrative assistant, it’s the same skill set,” she said. “We figured this was an easy one that affects everyone, so we can use it as a demonstration.”

Due in part to budget cuts and re-engineering, administrators scrutinize every position on-campus. If there’s a need to fill a position, the first question asked is whether it absolutely needs to be filled? If it does, internal candidates will be considered first.

“This semester, for example, Academic Affairs is undergoing a review of all of our instructional aides, lab assistants and all those other kind of odd positions that have STNC (Short Term Non-Continuing) hours filled in. We all may be doing with a little less, but we want to balance it between departments, between clusters and between campuses, so that there’s not only temporary employees in Petaluma and permanent employees in Santa Rosa,” Rudolph said.

Due to the repurposing of about 30 employees between both campuses, the affected departments had to quickly take action and make some adjustments. The chemistry department is temporarily sharing a classified employee between the Santa Rosa and Petaluma campuses to better support the chemistry program at both locations.

Also, the math department is now supported by one administrative assistant II, while its administrative assistant I, Linda Smith, was transferred to the Emeritus Service Center. Smith, who previously worked in the math department, remained optimistic. “Change is always disruptive to one’s personal balance,” she said. “However, it brings new perspective and learning curves that enhance one’s experience. While the reassignments feel disruptive, I am hopeful that it’s part of the budgetary solution overall.”

In Smith’s case, her repurposement was difficult at first. Not only had she worked in the math department for 11 years, but the challenges of her hearing disability also came into focus. “All personnel involved in my transition have been benevolent and supportive,” Smith said.

Two departments that especially felt the impact of re-engineering were Academic Computing and Administrative Computing Services, which were combined into one department. According to Scott Conrad, director of Information Technology (IT), “The transition has gone well so far. We merged what was the Petaluma Technical Support Team, Academic Computing and Computing Services into one department now called Information Technology.”

Conrad added, “The goal of merging the groups was more consistency in processes, same job expectations, lab support personnel located in or as close as possible to the computer labs they support and sharing best practices.”

With the changes the IT department made, it also had to repurpose several employees, including moving one Petaluma computer technician to a Media Services technician role, acquiring a half-time administrative assistant from another area and converting the help desk technician from a permanent half-time position to a full-time position.

Some employees affected by re-engineering may not believe it was the right solution, but it has been beneficial. “There are some things that we probably should’ve looked at a long time ago. When things are running smoothly and when you have money, it really takes a lot to go in and completely re-examine, and change something, even though it could be done better,” Rudolph said. Re-engineering gives Agrella, Rudolph and others involved in the decision-making process an opportunity to hear ideas from the whole college.

Despite the changes that have occurred on both campuses over the last several months, re-engineering is here to stay. “We entered re-engineering not as a short-term solution. I think it’s a long-term solution to a long-term problem that is going to exist in the State of California and is obviously going to affect the JC for a significant number of years. I think the college has changed permanently because I think the State of California is in the process of changing permanently—some good, some bad,” Agrella said.