Lane Community College budget crisis
It was completely predictable. In fact, I've predicted it several times and although my timing was a bit off, the essential outline is what I said in the 2003 election campaign for the LCC Board. The college continues to fund the trappings of a university on a budget that no longer permits such indulgences. It can only do this by running up tuition and crunching essential classes, which will drive down enrollment and eventually state funding.
There is a lag between the loss of students and the loss of funding. After the budget crisis a few years ago, the state froze the formula for distributing available cash among colleges so for a few years, there was absolutely no impact from declining enrollments. Lane took this breathing space as an opportunity lard up its expenses. It actually is spending more than it was three years ago when FTE enrollment was 25% higher.
The piper now wants to be paid. Cash from the state is declining in absolute dollars at the same time that costs are rising faster than CPI. Tuition is already the steepest in Oregon, so raising it significantly is no longer an option. That card has been played already.
When a college recognizes that society has a problem, it has two choices. It can ameliorate the situation in general by increasing the number of educated citizens, who will tend to deal well with the problem, or it can create a program, hire staff, designate classes, and generally make a visible effort to specifically address the issue on campus.
Lane invariable chooses the latter and this makes it a high-cost provider of education. The problem is that the state now provides most of its funding on an FTE reimbursement basis and under a new plan, perhaps misnamed as "equity," all colleges will get equal tax funding per student within another five years. Low cost providers will be able to charge lower tuition, which will attract more students, which will bring them more money and the high cost providers less.
Lane is presently on the brink of a cost/revenue death spiral. The administration seems to recognize this only dimly. There is very little time left to recognize the full gravity of the situation and reverse a lot of ill-advised decisions. The odds that the present Board, determining policies for the present administration, will meet the challenge are not good.
There is a lag between the loss of students and the loss of funding. After the budget crisis a few years ago, the state froze the formula for distributing available cash among colleges so for a few years, there was absolutely no impact from declining enrollments. Lane took this breathing space as an opportunity lard up its expenses. It actually is spending more than it was three years ago when FTE enrollment was 25% higher.
The piper now wants to be paid. Cash from the state is declining in absolute dollars at the same time that costs are rising faster than CPI. Tuition is already the steepest in Oregon, so raising it significantly is no longer an option. That card has been played already.
When a college recognizes that society has a problem, it has two choices. It can ameliorate the situation in general by increasing the number of educated citizens, who will tend to deal well with the problem, or it can create a program, hire staff, designate classes, and generally make a visible effort to specifically address the issue on campus.
Lane invariable chooses the latter and this makes it a high-cost provider of education. The problem is that the state now provides most of its funding on an FTE reimbursement basis and under a new plan, perhaps misnamed as "equity," all colleges will get equal tax funding per student within another five years. Low cost providers will be able to charge lower tuition, which will attract more students, which will bring them more money and the high cost providers less.
Lane is presently on the brink of a cost/revenue death spiral. The administration seems to recognize this only dimly. There is very little time left to recognize the full gravity of the situation and reverse a lot of ill-advised decisions. The odds that the present Board, determining policies for the present administration, will meet the challenge are not good.
posted by Rob Spooner at 6:57 AM
2 Comments:
Student retention has been the buzz word on campus in most of the departments. I'm also not one bit surprised about their budget problems. Lane has proven to be out of touch with its primary customer, the students.
In 2003, during the mass layoffs in the Eugène area, there was a huge influx of students going to Lane however, Lane was still in the budget mode and was unable to accommodate.
The other area that is the quality of instruction. Students like myself who are with any term or two graduating, are finding that they are heavily in debt to, $21,000 myself so far, do not know their major and businesses are refusing to hire them because the reputation of the department. Unfortunately, this leave the student holding the bag with no recourse.
something that is not often mentioned is the question, are the students getting value for their money?
in my opinion, no!
to date, I have spent over $21,000 and I feel it is the worst investment I ever made in my life. a feeling shared by other students in my department.
With most of us graduating after next term, at least as far as the CIT networking degree goes, most of us do not feel qualified enough to seek employment in our degree.
That statement is backed up by previous year students who have tried to apply for jobs utilizing their degree who are unable to answer the simplest of networking questions. [I confirmed this myself by checking the source of information]
this is also been confirmed by the instructor this term when he asked some the basic networking questions of the class and they could not answer it.
I brought this to their attention many times, but the response that I normally get is the see no evil hear no evil attitude.
I am a "B" average student, electronics technician for 30 years and a former employer, and base to my experience and from what I have seen from other students, I'm said to admit that I also would not hire with very few exception any student coming out of this program.
at this time, I highly recommend students to seek their education elsewhere
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