SHORELINE – Shoreline Community College must cut nearly $1.5 million to balance its $37.6 million budget.
With declining enrollment, increases in rents and utilities, allocation reductions and salary increases, the administrators at SCC have proposed $1.44 million worth of cuts that will provide short-term solutions. The college’s Board of Trustees were to be presented with a balanced general fund operating budget for 2005-06 at its Sept. 28 meeting, after The Enterprise deadline, and were expected to approve the cuts.
Reductions will be taken across the board, including $800,000 cut from instruction, said Lee Lambert, acting president of the college who graduated from Seattle University with a law degree.
While there was little time to adjust the fall schedule during the summer when discussion of the budget took place, almost 90 classes were cut because of low enrollment, said John Backes, acting vice president of academic affairs. Students who had already enrolled in the eliminated courses were talked with individually about options, and staff members suggested and found, in most situations, alternative courses, Backes said.
Although several staff positions will be cut, college officials anticipated the losses and did not fill some vacancies during the summer. With the help of shifts in staff responsibilities, administrators said they are hoping to keep the number of layoffs to a minimum.
In making the cuts, Vice President of Student Services Zakiya Stewart said the administrators looked for ways to minimize the effect on students.
“Each and every student … is very important to us at this time,” Stewart said.
In addition to instructional reductions, four other offices also reduced their budgets, including:
• President’s office – $178,000,
• Student services – $107,000,
• Workforce and economic development – $118,000,
• Administrative services and human resources – $238,876.
One of the driving forces behind the need for budget cuts is enrollment decline.
Since the college’s peak of enrollment in 2002, the decline has been steady. Besides tuition, each student brings a fixed amount of funding from the state. This past year, the decrease in state funding was covered by the college’s reserves, Lambert said.
The reserves can only be spent down so much, Lambert said, and it’s time for SCC to stop relying on that money.
“We passed the problem along to this year, and that’s not the way we want to (handle) it,” Lambert said.
The budget cuts are a short-term solution to SCC’s budget crisis, Lambert said, adding that additional changes will have to be made to plan ahead for future years.
“We could be looking at additional deep cuts,” Lambert said. “I don’t want to sugar-coat it.”
Enrollment decreases
“We are really dependent on our state allocation as well as tuition from our students,” Lambert said.
As of Sept. 23, the college was down 109 enrolled students from the same date in 2004.
“We are down from last year’s numbers, and last year was down from the previous year,” Lambert said.
Enrollment drops can be seen at other community colleges in the region, he said. School officials say such decreases are typical when the economy gains strength. When Boeing was laying off workers in 2001 and 2002, many signed up for worker retraining classes and community colleges saw a rise in enrollment.
“We’re not the only (college) facing low enrollment and potential budget crises,” Lambert said.
Open communication
This budget crisis comes at a time when the college also is working without a permanent leader. President Holly Moore resigned effective Sept. 1, and Lambert, who came within the past year as vice president of human resources and legal affairs, is now acting president.
Moore had been criticized by faculty and staff at the college for a lack of open communication. Lambert stressed at an all-campus meeting on Sept. 23, that he and the vice presidents plan on including faculty and staff in discussions regarding budgeting, and other areas, at the college.
“We’re going to start opening up … making our procedures more transparent,” he said.
Lambert said he has already seen improvements. “We are working better now as a team than we ever had,” Lambert said.
Presidential search
Hiring a permanent president to replace Moore is a process that will take this academic year, Lambert said.
“Right now, there’s broken trust on this campus,” said Lambert, who has been through two president search processes at other colleges. “A presidential search process can be a healing process.”
It’s an opportunity for everyone on campus to provide feedback on the type of person they’d like to see lead the college. A possible president could have strong qualities in academics, bringing people together or fund-raising, and now is the time for the college to begin discussing these important characteristics, he said.
The college has earmarked $100,000 for the presidential search process, Lambert said. It is expensive, as it may be necessary for SCC to hire a consultant to lead and facilitate the search. There also must be money to bring candidates to campus.
A $310,000 settlement with Moore is not coming out of the college’s operating budget. The Board of Trustees voted at its Sept. 1 meeting to use money from the Board Reserve funds. At the time, this account contained $1.575 million, which could be used in a settlement, if deemed an emergency. Using the fund does not affect the college’s general operating fund, Vice President for Administrative Services Beverly Brandt told the board Sept. 1.
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