Days before students prepare to return to Centralia College, administrators and staff at Lewis County’s highest learning institution are dealing with a directive from Olympia to look where they could possibly make further cuts.
College public relations director Don Frey told The Chronicle Wednesday afternoon the college had been contacted by state officials to create scenarios for a possible 5 or 10 percent budget cut that could follow the college’s 2011-12 cut of $1.78 million approved in June by the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges. But one glaring difference exists between this potential cut and the one college administrators worked on figuring out last school year: the state has asked for a list of programs that could be cut rather than a specific dollar amount.
“We’re not sure why the state is asking us to look at specific programs we could cut when they had simply given us a monetary target to hit last time,” Frey said. “We will respond as directed, but regardless what we put on the table we would anticipate the reality is going to be that we will have the authority to cut the way we believe would have the least impact.”
Centralia College would be only one of many two-year and technical colleges impacted as part of the SBCTC system, which has already absorbed major trimming to the 2011-12 budget. Locally, the $1.78 million cut means fewer classes available for students, with many bearing a higher financial burden as back-to-back tuition increases will take place beginning this fall quarter — which begins in 11 days — and the 2012-13 academic year.
In Tuesday’s Chronicle, vice president of student services Michael Grubiak said the college projects 2,200 full-time equivalents, or students taking a full courseload, to walk the halls of campus this fall quarter. Tuition dollars have been relied upon increasingly as a major source of revenue, as each student will pay $1,239 per quarter for a full course load of 15 credits (tuition and fees). College and Running Start students brought in approximately $1 million in revenue in 2010-11, according to data presented at a budget forum in June.
Frey said the state’s request was based on a worse economic forecast than originally predicted. As the request was simply for the college to come up with a range of scenarios as to what the cuts could entail, it remains unclear what exactly could go under the chopping block.
“We can’t yet say what the college would look like if we had to cut 5 or 10 percent; it’s just too early at this point,” Frey said. “There’s just not much we can cut anymore without adversely affecting the students somehow.”
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Christopher Brewer: (360) 807-8235
