May 16, 2012
HARRISBURG – The Board of Trustees for HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, today adopted the 2012-13 budget, approved a tuition increase and approved a modified organizational structure that will include a reduction in workforce.
Adoption of budget
The 2012-13 budget approved by the board today is $180,213,000, which is $6,173,000 less than the 2011-12 budget of $186,386,000. The new spending plan adopted by the board is nearly balanced, with a deficit of $357,670.
“The board’s demand for a budget that more closely aligns operating costs with estimated revenues was accomplished through many strategies,” said HACC President John J. “Ski” Sygielski, Ed.D.
Those strategies include:
- Freezing salary increases until Jan. 1, 2013
- Offering early retirements to qualified employees
- Granting reduced work (and pay) schedules to qualified employees
- Eliminating vacant positions
- Centralizing the college’s structure to streamline operations, create efficiencies and eliminate redundancies to make up for anticipated losses in revenue
- Increasing student tuition rates
“This budget reflects the concerted effort of the college community, including students, faculty and staff, to keep tuition as affordable as possible while maintaining HACC’s high educational standards,” Sygielski said.
“The loss of revenue includes Gov. Corbett’s proposed reduction of 3.8 percent in funding in 2012-13 to the operating budgets of community colleges, bringing the state’s support to less than 1995-96 levels,” he said.
“We experienced a slight decrease in enrollment that further contributed to a decrease in revenue,” Sygielski said. “After more than a decade of double-digit growth, enrollment of 22,595 credit students in fall 2011 was 2.6 percent lower than enrollment of 23,210 in fall 2010.”
Tuition increase
The board voted to increase tuition by $3 per credit for sponsored school district students, $6 per credit for all other in-state students and $9 per credit for out-of-state and international students. Sygielski said, “We know the tuition increases will present a financial hardship for many of our students. We will work with them to apply for scholarships provided by generous donors to the HACC Foundation.”
In addition, on Feb. 27, 2009, the Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Council passed a resolution to approve the increase of the student activity fee by 50 cents annually over the next four years. The HACC Board of Trustees voted to approve this SGA resolution on April 7, 2009. The first increase was instituted in 2009-10. The year 2012-13 will be the final year of the four-year increase. The remaining fees for 2012-13 will stay at the current levels.
Reduction in workforce
The board approved a modified organizational structure, which will result in a reduction in workforce. “The Cabinet and I implemented many strategies before realizing that we would have to eliminate filled positions to bring the budget into line. Unfortunately, even the personnel reductions were not enough, and the 2012-13 budget still has a deficit of $357, 670,” Sygielski said. “This is in sharp contrast to the $11.4-million deficit in the 2012-13 budget proposal we faced in January when it was initially developed,” he said.
Sygielski said he will not name the positions nor give the number of positions that will be eliminated by June 30. “Our employees deserve to hear this information first and to hear it from the college,” he said. He said the impacted employees and their departments will be notified by May 24.
“Eliminating filled positions was a last resort,” Sygielski continued. “The decision to do so has been heart wrenching and heartbreaking. Frankly, this decision – more than any other – has kept me and the Cabinet members up at night.”
Vision for the future
Since July 2011, Sygielski has held numerous internal and external open forums; conducted many meetings with students, employees, and supporters of the College; and solicited comments through online forms. In January 2012, he convened an efficiency task force of representatives from across the college to suggest ways to change the institutional structure to better serve the needs of students. During February and March, Sygielski led open forums at each of HACC’s campuses in Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lebanon and York to present various models proposed by the group.
Sygielski said today’s actions came “after many months of intense work on the part of students and employees. We developed a plan that will allow us to better achieve our core mission of providing our students with a quality education. There is a new normal in higher education and we will need to continually be resolute in adjusting to the needs of our students and those we serve in the community. Going forward, we will have to look for new sources of revenue to accomplish that.”
About HACC: HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, was established in 1964 as the commonwealth’s first community college. HACC offers nearly 200 associate career and transfer degrees, certificate and diploma programs to more than 22,000 credit students in a 10-county area with regional campuses in Harrisburg, Gettysburg, Lancaster, Lebanon and York, and an online Virtual Campus that reaches students on a global scale. In addition, HACC is Central Pennsylvania’s premier workforce development provider with more than 50,000 students enrolled in areas such as job training, customized company contracts, public safety, healthcare, technology, trades and computer training. For more information, go to www.hacc.edu or call 1-800-ABC-HACC (1-800-222-4222).
HACC Board of Trustees meeting May 16, 2012
Fact Sheet (May 16, 2012)
The HACC Board of Trustees met on May 16, 2012. At the meeting, the board:
- Adopted a 2012-13 budget of $180,213,000, which is $6,173,000 less than the total 2011-12 budget of $186,386,000. The total budget is nearly balanced, with a deficit of $357,670.
- The HACC budget at a glance:
|
Budget year
|
Budget
|
Projected
|
|
2011-12 Educational and general
|
$171,442,000
|
$168,085,000
|
|
2011-12 Auxiliary services
|
$ 14,944,000
|
$ 14,271,000
|
|
2011-12 Total
|
$186,386,000
|
$ 182,356,000
|
|
2012-13 Educational and general
|
$165,197,000
|
|
|
2012-13 Auxiliary services
|
$ 15,016,000
|
|
|
2012-13 Total
|
$180,213,000
|
(Numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand)
- Approved a new organizational structure that centralizes the college’s operations.
Specifically, the board approved the following:
- The college will centralize its operations. Many of the individuals who reported directly to the six campus vice presidents will now report to the functional vice presidents (finance, information technology, student affairs, academic affairs, college advancement, and human resources and organizational development).
- These individuals will have a “solid line” reporting structure to the functional vice presidents and a “dotted line” reporting structure to the campus vice presidents.
- This enhancement is effective immediately. The functional and campus vice presidents will work together – collaboratively, openly and positively – to ensure this model is successful.
- The college will retain all six campus vice presidents, who will report to college president. Currently, these individuals report to the provost / vice president of academic affairs and enrollment management.
HACC President John J. “Ski” Sygielski said the budget cutting and college reorganization will result in the elimination of positions – a strategy taken as a last resort by Sygielski and the Cabinet.
Sygielski noted:
- In many cases, the positions are already vacant, so they will not be filled. In other cases, the positions are currently filled.
- Positions that will be eliminated as of June 30, 2012, will not be named until after the employees and their co-workers hear about it first from HACC.
- The layoffs are expected to be completed by May 24, 2012.
- HACC currently has 2,465 employees, including 1,518 full- and part-time employees and 947 noncredit adjuncts.
- HACC has five regional campuses in Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lebanon and York and a Virtual Campus that provides online learning worldwide.
- HACC is the largest of Pennsylvania’s 14 community colleges, with an enrollment of 22,595 in fall 2011. That number reflects a 2.6 percent decline in enrollment of 23,210 students in fall
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