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Budget crunching
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| Tim Atkinson (right), Lake City Community College executive director of workforce and economic development, congratulates Greg Ridilla, plant manager at Hunter Panels Inc., Tuesday afternoon. Ridilla was one of 28 key partners who gave corporate support toward the college earning a $1.9 million community-based job training grant. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Lake City Community College addresses finances for coming year.
By MICHAEL MITSEFF
mmitseff@lakecityreporter.com
The Lake City Community College district board of trustees approved the college’s 2008-2009 operating budget Tuesday, culminating a tumultuous year of change that saw the elimination of the school’s athletic programs, the closing of its student
dorms and the outsourcing of its custodial work.
“The budget has been a challenge all year,” said Dr. Charles Hall, president of the college, “starting from the first of the year when we weren’t sure how it was going to be with tuition — to the changes in that — to hearing there was going to be a special session, which there was, to going through the legislative session.
“All the situations seemed to reduce everything we wanted to do dollar-wise.”
Hall said the disappearing revenue required some hard budget decisions this year so the college could hold back a small reserve in anticipation of more cuts in the next legislative budget session rumored to take place right after the presidential
elections in November.
“Employees at the college took no salary increase this year in support of what we are doing, but other than the custodial staff (and the elimination of the athletic program), we haven’t had to reduce staff as such,” Hall said. “We had a couple people who left because of the athletic program but there were positions that they could have applied for, but chose not to.”
Hall said the money saved by eliminating the athletic programs has been rolled over into new scholarships and the planned expansion and addition of new academic programs.
Also, the college is increasing tuition by 6 percent, subject to approval by the Florida Community College System.
“We’re going to have a leaner, tighter budget than we’ve had before; we just need to be really conservative with what we are going to do,” Hall said. “The academic program is what we do and service to the community, and so we think we’ve protected those.”
The college is also using some of the money saved by eliminating the athletic programs and closing the student dorms to expand current academic programs and to add more minority scholarships.
“We’re planning to add to the nursing program, we’re also looking at a fire college, possibly having a fire station on campus in the future, a culinary arts program is a possibility, along with a possible program for farming fish or shrimp — things
like that would lend themselves to hands-on training,” Hall said.
He also said the loss of the Department of Corrections training hurt the college financially, especially when added to the state’s budget cuts.
n In other business, the Dean of Arts and Sciences Brian G. Dopson presented a report on the success that LCCC associate of arts transfer students enjoy at state public universities.
“Our transfer students placed second in grade-point average for all colleges in the state in 2006,” Dopson said.
Dopson said the University of Florida is arguably the most internationally competitive
university in the state.
The second most chosen university among LCCC transfer students is Florida State University he said, noting that they place first in the state for average GPA.
“I would challenge any other community college in the state to post these types of consistent numbers for GPA success for transfer students,” Dopson said.
LCCC transfer students have consistently placed in the top four or five for GPA among the state’s 28 community colleges for the past several years, he said.
Also, the college held an appreciation ceremony
for its Key Partners who helped earn the college a $1.9 million community-based jobs training grant, funded through the Department of Labor.
It is a three-year grant that allows LCCC to expand training and education for logistics and distribution as well as some areas of manufacturing.
The money will allow LCCC to establish an associate’s Process Engineering Technology degree and other industry certificate programs.
It will also provide summer institutes for middle- and high-school students to make them aware of the career possibilities available to them.
dorms and the outsourcing of its custodial work.
“The budget has been a challenge all year,” said Dr. Charles Hall, president of the college, “starting from the first of the year when we weren’t sure how it was going to be with tuition — to the changes in that — to hearing there was going to be a special session, which there was, to going through the legislative session.
“All the situations seemed to reduce everything we wanted to do dollar-wise.”
Hall said the disappearing revenue required some hard budget decisions this year so the college could hold back a small reserve in anticipation of more cuts in the next legislative budget session rumored to take place right after the presidential
elections in November.
“Employees at the college took no salary increase this year in support of what we are doing, but other than the custodial staff (and the elimination of the athletic program), we haven’t had to reduce staff as such,” Hall said. “We had a couple people who left because of the athletic program but there were positions that they could have applied for, but chose not to.”
Hall said the money saved by eliminating the athletic programs has been rolled over into new scholarships and the planned expansion and addition of new academic programs.
Also, the college is increasing tuition by 6 percent, subject to approval by the Florida Community College System.
“We’re going to have a leaner, tighter budget than we’ve had before; we just need to be really conservative with what we are going to do,” Hall said. “The academic program is what we do and service to the community, and so we think we’ve protected those.”
The college is also using some of the money saved by eliminating the athletic programs and closing the student dorms to expand current academic programs and to add more minority scholarships.
“We’re planning to add to the nursing program, we’re also looking at a fire college, possibly having a fire station on campus in the future, a culinary arts program is a possibility, along with a possible program for farming fish or shrimp — things
like that would lend themselves to hands-on training,” Hall said.
He also said the loss of the Department of Corrections training hurt the college financially, especially when added to the state’s budget cuts.
n In other business, the Dean of Arts and Sciences Brian G. Dopson presented a report on the success that LCCC associate of arts transfer students enjoy at state public universities.
“Our transfer students placed second in grade-point average for all colleges in the state in 2006,” Dopson said.
Dopson said the University of Florida is arguably the most internationally competitive
university in the state.
The second most chosen university among LCCC transfer students is Florida State University he said, noting that they place first in the state for average GPA.
“I would challenge any other community college in the state to post these types of consistent numbers for GPA success for transfer students,” Dopson said.
LCCC transfer students have consistently placed in the top four or five for GPA among the state’s 28 community colleges for the past several years, he said.
Also, the college held an appreciation ceremony
for its Key Partners who helped earn the college a $1.9 million community-based jobs training grant, funded through the Department of Labor.
It is a three-year grant that allows LCCC to expand training and education for logistics and distribution as well as some areas of manufacturing.
The money will allow LCCC to establish an associate’s Process Engineering Technology degree and other industry certificate programs.
It will also provide summer institutes for middle- and high-school students to make them aware of the career possibilities available to them.
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