State may cut community college budget again
The state has told UCC to prepare for possible budget cuts for next year, but Vice President for Administrative Service Beverly Brandt isn’t worried. “I’m not panicked yet. It will be a long time before we know what we are budgeting to, late June or early July.”
UCC, along with the other 16 community colleges in the state has been asked to prepare budget reductions based upon three different funding levels from the state. Those potential levels of funding are $400, $385 and $350 million dollars. Brandt believes that the $400 million dollar level of funding is most likely. “The legislature looks very favorably on community colleges right now.”
This will result in possible budget cuts of $500,000 to $1.5 million at UCC. This seems like a lot of money, and it is, but UCC’s total budget is over $25 million dollars. Tuition supplies only 20 percent of the UCC budget, the rest comes from the state, grants and from Oregon property taxes. When the State of Oregon required all state budgets to be cut by 9 percent last year the community college budget was reduced from $429 million to $413 million. UCC’s portion of that cut was $900,000.
After last year’s budget cut, Oregon Community Colleges now receives $413 million dollars in state funding. This money is distributed to the schools based solely upon enrollment. UCC saw a 25 percent increase in full time enrollment last year, which has helped to keep funding as high as possible. This is the largest percent increase in enrollment in the state.
One option to increase funds is to increase tuition. Brandt states that the board is reluctant to raise tuition further, but they have already approved an increase of one dollar per credit for next year. UCC currently has the lowest tuition cost per credit in the state at $65. The highest is LCC, who is considering raising their tuition perhaps as much as $10 above its current $78 per credit level. A one dollar increase per credit in tuition will put approximately an additional $116,000 in UCC’s funding. A five dollar increase would allow UCC to absorb a budget cut of over one half million dollars without making any changes. Some schools are considering raising tuition as much as $7-10 per credit to balance their budgets.
Although the UCC administration has begun to look at ways to increase revenue and cut costs, they are still only exploring options. Brandt emphasized that “our philosophy is to maintain the status quo and open enough spaces for students.” One option which UCC does not want to consider is capping enrollment. Central Oregon Community College did this last year. Lane Community College is considering it this year according to the Register-Guard. Once the maximum number of students is enrolled, the term is simply closed and no additional students will be accommodated.
When asked about likely changes at UCC, Brandt emphasized that UCC has only begun to look at these and other options. Although a very real possibility, budget cuts are not necessarily a fact yet.
When asked about the proposed budget cuts, Brandt states, “We are just being cautious.” The governor presents the budget (which must be balanced), in mid December to the legislature. This starts the ball rolling as the needs for funding for everything in the state, including community colleges is considered and balanced against projected revenues for the coming two years. UCC will start the inclusive budget process in February. This will take around five months with budgeting beginning at the department level and working its way to the administration.
Brandt stated that they haven’t really started to make budget cut plans. They are currently making themselves aware of options and what other schools have done to balance budgets. “The board is very conservative,” Brandt states. “One of our first goals is to protect full time employees.”
One possibility is that UCC “might see some things done a little less.” For example, UCC may choose to reduce some course offerings, instead of offering five different 80 percent full classes for a particular writing course, UCC may instead only offer four class times at 100 percent full. Another possible option is reduce the cleaning schedule. Perhaps some buildings could be cleaned every other day instead of every day.
Brandt says that out of her 35 years of experience in college administration only one third of those years have not involved budget cuts. One third were flat budget years and the other third involved drastic cuts in college spending.
Possible budget cuts from the state will not affect the financial aid that students receive according to Brandt. “We are luckier than most schools because we are fiscally sound.” She also hopes that any budget cuts will not affect the search for a new president.
The answer seems to be wait and see. Wait for the governor to present his budget to the state legislature in December. Wait for the legislature to decide how much funding to allocate to community colleges. Wait to see what UCC has to work with and what it needs. Tune back in the spring for a better preliminary estimate; or just wait until the fall and see what happens.
| The Mainstream is a student publication of Umpqua Community College. | About us | Advertising | Archives |