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Northeast Iowa Community College
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Northeast Iowa Community College officials are implementing a range of strategies to contend with the loss of state funding for FY 2011.
In his FY 2011 budget recommendations, Iowa Governor Chet Culver recently proposed that community colleges be funded at $148 million or approximately $20 million less than last year's total funding with federal stimulus dollars. The Governor's budget recommendations only serve as a starting point and are not finalized until the legislature approves the budget at the end of the legislative session. This decision is also dependent on revenue estimates that will be supplied in March by the Revenue Estimating Conference. If this budget were passed as it currently stands, Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) would have a $1 million shortfall. "While we appreciate the Governor's efforts to increase support for community colleges, it is not enough," said Dr. Penny Wills, NICC's president. "Community colleges provide the education and training to get people back on their feet and bring new jobs to the state. We are needed now more than ever before." In preparation for possible budget reductions, Northeast Iowa Community College had convened a task force last November to study possible budget cut reductions. The task force consisted of Wills, the college's three vice presidents, the chair of the college's Quality Council, the chair of the Fiscal Management sub-committee of the Quality Council and the presidents of the faculty and support staff unions. The committee met weekly to review over 250 cost-cutting and revenue-generating proposals submitted by faculty and staff. Their recommendations were made to the NICC Board of Trustees on January 18. The recommendations consisted of three levels of potential cuts that could be initiated depending on the severity of the state general aid cuts. The first level of recommendations included eliminating the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) credit program, the Business Accelerator program in Dubuque and the evening/weekend nursing program. Other cuts recommended include setting enrollment caps on the nursing and allied health programs and eliminating several smaller clinical sites in those programs. The committee also recommended that the Child Development Center services be reviewed. The centers on the two campuses currently receive approximately $360,000 in subsidies from the college annually. In addition to the level of state general aid, the cuts that are made will also depend on the number of employees taking early retirement and the faculty and support staff unions contract negotiations as well as projected increases to health care insurance and other fixed costs such as utilities. Unlike the K-12 school districts, community colleges cannot levy for additional taxpayer support to offset the decrease in state support. While the college initially received nearly one-third of its operating budget from the local taxpayers in the 1960's, that figure has been frozen over time and now represents only about six percent of the college's total budget. The decrease in local tax support has resulted in increased student tuition, which now accounts for about 50 percent of the college's operating budget. Iowa's community college tuition is now ninth highest in the nation and Iowa students rank number one nationally in the amount of student debt they receive. NICC's credit hour enrollment increased 14 percent in the spring semester 2010. This is on top of 15 and 16 percent jumps in each of the previous fall and summer 2009 terms. Many of these increases have come from full-time, non-traditional age students in career and technical programs, Wills said. The college will expand its career and technical offerings this fall by opening two additional programs in computerized numerical control (CNC) and wind turbine maintenance and repair. These programs are being funded with business and industry support as well as grants through the Department of Education and Department of Labor. They will be located in expanded space available in the college's new industrial technologies facilities on each campus. These new facilities, along with the college's other renovation and construction projects, were funded by a bond levy passed by local taxpayers in December 2007. These funds can only be used for the purpose of infrastructure and cannot offset any of NICC's other budget needs. "Our commitment to our students and northeast Iowa has not changed," stated Dr. Wills. "We are focused on continuing to deliver the quality education our students and our communities have come to expect from us." ### |
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