The Budget Committee accepts the proposed budget.

Despite the public comments made at the April 26th budget meeting, and a statement asking board members to hold off on accepting the proposed budget until after faculty and administration were able to sit down and discuss alternatives to the proposed cuts, the budget committee passed the proposed budget (which includes the reduction of 10 full-time faculty positions), with the exception of three, 2 No’s and 1 abstention.

However, when this vote took place, there was no quorum.  So an emergency budget meeting is being held 5/24 to revote on the issue.   Some important questions were raised during the last budget meetings, and not all of the answers provided were accurate or provided in detail.

The Budget Message is Inaccurate and Misleading

The following quote from Page 4 of the budget document states that “The institution took significant measures to put forth a balanced budget in both 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. The measures included the elimination of 39 full and part-time positions, almost entirely in the classified and exempt technical employee categories. Every possible effort was made to spare instruction and faculty…” (emphasis added)

During a meeting to find solutions to layoffs, the BMFA asked for an accounting of the 39 full and part-time positions that were almost entirely in the classified and exempt technical employee categories.  The Administration produced a document with only 33 positions listed.  The breakdown of positions was as follows:

  • Classified 5, Exempt 8, Part-time 13, Faculty 7.
  • Part-time is only in reference to classified and exempt part time and it stated that they “will be reclassified as on-call and limiting hours”.
  • Part-time faculty were not included in the document yet there has been a significant reduction in part-time faculty. There has also been a reduction in classes for the part-time faculty who remain.
  • 4 of the 8 exempt positions and 1 of the 4 classified positions were vacant positions.  Additionally, the College has either already filled or intends to hire 3 new administrative positions in this budget cycle.

Since the administration neglected to include the losses and reduction in classes for part-time faculty and didn’t mention that they were hiring back some of the administrators, a better way of examining the budget document is to look at the amount spent in the categories for each group.  Below is a chart which shows the adopted budget for 19-20 and the adopted budget for two years later, 21-22.

**The combined losses in the FT & PT faculty categories equal $1.1 million dollars whereas the losses in the FT & PT exempt/classified categories is $635,150.   With the cuts the college proposes, there will be an additional loss to faculty of $1 million.  The number of FT faculty position losses will go from 7 to 17 leaving only 25 FT faculty on campus.  The percentage of the general fund budget going to FT faculty will be less than 12%. **

The budget message appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead, the categories FT & PT faculty combined have experienced nearly twice the dollar losses as the categories FT & PT classified/exempt combined have.  Since the quoted passage is clearly inaccurate and misleading, it should be removed or else altered to reflect the facts.

This short video addresses some of the most pressing concerns, the data, and the state laws that come into play.