Catawba Valley Community College president discusses budget concerns

Despite surging enrollment numbers, Catawba Valley Community College still faces having a large chunk of its budget cut this year due to the state budget crisis. These cuts may mean some staff being laid off and fewer classes.

CVCC enrolled about 5,000 students during the 2008 fall semester. As of Thursday afternoon, 4,038 students had already registered for fall classes. By the time registration ends July 15, Garrett Hinshaw, president of CVCC, said he projects there will be 700 more students enrolled at the college this fall compared to last year. This will be CVCC's largest enrolling class in the school's history.

"We're way ahead of where we were last year for enrollment at this time," he said. "With the budget situation, I don't think we can guarantee all those (class) sections will be available."

Steps CVCC has taken

CVCC had to return $1,967,097 to the state during its 2008-09 budget year. Due to the state's ongoing budget crisis, the General Assembly required all the school systems, including community colleges, to return money from the state, called reversions.

Although the state hasn't finalized its 2009-10 budget yet, Hinshaw anticipates CVCC's budget will be trimmed an additional $2.2 million this year. That is 16 percent of the school's total budget.

The school annually receives about $25 million from the state, $3.2 million from Catawba and Alexander commissioners and $2 million in grants, Hinshaw said.

Alexander County maintained its funding for the 2009-10 year, and Catawba County increased its funding by 6 percent as part of a five-year plan for revitalizing some of the buildings on campus and increasing parking to match the rising enrollment, Hinshaw said.

To compensate for the state reversions, Hinshaw took precautions. On Feb. 20, he talked to the employees of CVCC about tough times ahead.

Hinshaw reduced his pay by 4 percent in February. The deans and vice presidents reduced their salaries by 3 percent. All full-time support staff took a 1 percent pay cut. This saved CVCC $556,500. The part-time, non-instructional staff also has been reduced by 50 percent.

Seven positions are frozen. Hinshaw said instruction is his No. 1 priority, though, and a position has been added in the humanities department because of the demand.

CVCC also ended a contract with Noel-Levitz, saving $100,000. CVCC had a three-year contract for marketing, recruitment, retention and other services with the company, Hinshaw said. The college was able to end the contract a year early without penalty.

One of the biggest changes at CVCC has been the restructuring of instructional faculty contracts.

Instructional faculty has been bumped back from 12-month contracts to nine-month contracts, Hinshaw said. Faculty members will get a half-month paycheck in May and a half-month paycheck in August. They won't be paid in June and July. Faculty will get paid 10 percent less, Hinshaw said.

He said CVCC will try to make up the difference by having instructors teach summer classes. Hinshaw admits, however, that not every instructor will be able to teach during the summer, and says summer instructors will not earn their regular salaries, only part-time salaries.

"The majority of community colleges did this a few months back," Hinshaw said. "I don't know how the rest will be able to avoid it now, with the budget situation."

Summer classes also are different. In the past, CVCC used money it received from the state for fall and spring registration and saved some to pay for summer school, spreading it over three months.

The only funding CVCC actually received from the state for summer school is for non-credit classes, Hinshaw said.

"We paid the faculty out of state resources. We scrimped and saved and overextended ourselves," Hinshaw said about previous summer classes. "We spent $2.5 million for summer classes. We wanted to make classes available, but we weren't concerned about the numbers enrolled."

CVCC is now converting its summer classes to being entirely self-supporting. The cost of summer school will be paid for from enrollment for those classes, Hinshaw said, and the classes offered will be determined by popularity.

"We looked at enrollment trends. This is the first summer that we're doing this," he said. "We looked at classes with the largest numbers. Next year, we'll push for classes with lower numbers so they can continue to be offered. We're offering 85 percent of the classes this summer compared to last."

What's expected this year

Hinshaw said the state likely will require community colleges to cut another 11 to 14 percent as a "management flexibility cut."

"Management flexibility cut reduces the formula allotment by 11 percent to each college, based on last year's enrollment. That's around $800,000 for CVCC," Hinshaw said. "We're anticipating a 16 percent enrollment increase at the same time that we'll have a reduction in the amount allotted to us. That's a huge gap. Community colleges only get 8 cents on the dollar for education anyway."

The state said there will likely be another 5 percent reversion this year, as well, Hinshaw said.

The state also increased tuition from $42 per credit hour to $50 per credit hour for in-state students.

Out-of-state students are paying another $8, or $241.30 per credit hour.

In the face of the state's budget crisis, Hinshaw is still concerned about what the fall may bring.

Although CVCC has skyrocketing enrollment, the college might not be able to meet the demand for classes.

"I'm really concerned about college transfer sections, like English, math and science, as well as developmental sections," Hinshaw said. "We won't have the resources to add the numbers of sections we need. This year, we don't have the flexibility to add more sections when they fill up. That's why we're encouraging our current students to enroll now."

One way to help is to add additional seating, but only so many chairs can be added to a classroom.

"It depends on the size of the classroom for the number of chairs and tables we can fit in. Some classes are writing-intensive, so we don't want too many students in there for the teacher's sake," Hinshaw said. "Some are lab-oriented, and we're concerned about safety. Some have requirements for teacher-to-student ratios, so we look at that. But numbers will be increased in some sections."

He's also concerned about the Huskins dual-enrollment program, which allows high school students to take classes at community colleges for free. The state has toyed with eliminating it. Hinshaw said nearly 800 high school students are dual-enrolled in area high schools and CVCC.

"If these students aren't allowed, they'll have to go back to their schools, where they're already facing cuts," he said. "Most dual-enrolled students take two to three classes here. It saves them quite a bit of money."

And although faculty and staff have taken a pay cut, Hinshaw said some employees may lose their jobs.

"Based on what we're looking at now, I believe we will (have to reduce staff)," he said. "We'll look at administration first. We want to look at what the students needs are first, and protect those."

Some of the positions that have been vacated due to retirement, that are non-instructional positions, have not been filled, Hinshaw said. Instructional positions are not ones he is willing to sacrifice, he said.

CVCC is looking at private partnerships with corporations and other donors. Hinshaw said CVCC has to be entrepreneurial at a time like this.

"Community colleges have an open door, but it's starting to shrink some," he said. "When I walked in here three years ago, I had so many plans and visions, and this has hurt our strategic plan."