RE: The Budgetary Grip of Enrollment

https://www.google.com/search?q=decrease+images&biw=1600&bih=783&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCNnS2YyPzcgCFcJ6PgodkmUCTg#imgrc=4hT6-HlWs2bT3M%3A

With the recent delayed passing of the North Carolina State Budget and many Community Colleges experiencing declining enrollments, Kohl's blog post provoked much thought about how to address the budgetary grip of enrollment.  While faculty reductions at Southern University of Maine and Wisconsin higher education institutions were cited, faculty reductions in the NC/VA region have also occurred. I will refer back to the article we read about Patrick Henry County Community College who experienced faculty reductions in 2013 when a budget deficit of $1.8 million was discovered (Tyson, 2014). Although significant enrollment decreases contributed to the aforementioned situation, poor planning seemed to be the root cause. Goldstein (2005) emphasizes that while financial crisis can occur at any time, institutions who have not adequately planned are struck the hardest.  The institution treated tuition funds during increased enrollment periods as recurring funds rather than one-time funds which failed to budget for the decreasing enrollment period (Tyson, 2014).  It appears to me that Patrick Henry Community College was utilizing an Incremental Budgeting process in which resources are allocated in a uniform manner through specified percentages.  This process is based upon the theory the basic aspects of programs and activities do not significantly change from one year to the next.  Incremental budgeting is an efficient, simple, easy, controllable, and flexible budgeting method that works well under normal circumstances (Goldstein, 2005).  However, when enrollment began to steadily drop from 2011 on, non-marginal changes occurred and the community college could not allocate resources in the same manner.  The lack of meaningful planning was the root cause of Patrick Henry Community College’s financial exigency.  As stated by Goldstein (2005) and Tyson (2014) the largest component of any institutional budget is salaries and benefits often representing 70 percent or more of the operating expenses. Therefore, in times of financial crisis terminating faculty positions is the most obvious way to relieve the financial stress.

So how can we avoid cutting faculty positions during declining enrollment periods?  I believe the answer is building flexibility and awareness into the budget process.  Goldstein  (2005) suggests that academic and enrollment planning can strongly influence the budget process. For example, Institutional Effectiveness processes such as college, division, and department strategic and tactical planning, sets the framework for resource allocation and includes faculty positions.  Community college programs must continually assess their individual effectiveness to assess and monitor their resource allocation.  An enrollment plan influences the allocation of resources by estimating tuition, and student fee revenues along with faculty salaries and purchasing expenses.  Both of theses processes can create a cushion in uncertain times.

Forsyth Tech currently employs 562 full-time faculty positions and 956 part-time positions for 200 plus curriculum and economic workforce programs (Fast Facts, 2015).  The college experienced a nine percent enrollment decrease for the Fall of 2015.  Awareness to the decrease in tuition revenue is occurring at the health technology program level,  with full-time vacancy positions being filled by programs who can demonstrate a healthy applicant pool and successful completion/retention rates.  Health Technology programs can generate projected enrollment numbers by collecting data representing the number of general occupation students who have designated a health technology program as a major.  Additionally, health technology programs are evaluating their utilization of part-time employees to determine if the number of students is comparable for the number of part-time instructors.  The current expectation is that full-time faculty should be able to teach the courses within the program of study with part-time faculty utilized to help cover clinical and high faculty teaching loads.  All of this is performed through annual program planning and assessment.

Planning and awareness is essential to the budget process!!

 

References:
Forsyth Tech, (2015). Fast Facts. Retrieved from https://www.forsythtech.edu/discover/fast-facts/

Goldstein, L. (2005). College and university budgeting: An introduction for faculty and academic administrators. Washington, DC: NACUBO.

Tyson, C. (2014). For community colleges, Post-recession blues. Inside higher ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/07/17/enrollment-low-stakes-are-high-community-college-learns#sthash.yF6LVG8f.dpbs

RE: Graduate Certificate Programs

The trend of Graduate Certificate Programs is quite fascinating in higher education. I often wonder how much Graduate Certificate Programs are respected in the professional world. However, in a time when our professions are required to be well versed in many different areas (a trend that often uses the phrase "wearing different hats", these Graduate Certificate Programs can further accelerate a person's career in their current work or even help them change careers.

One trend that I don't think is being acknowledged is that, these programs can be quite specific. For example Lenoir - Rhyne University offers a Public Service Chaplain certificate, a Narrative Medicine program (which Logan addressed in his previous blog post) but when you think about these programs, they appeal to a very specific demographic. I found a video on a specific field that I honestly didn't think it would have existed. The university that is offering this program is McGill University in Canada.

















Another consideration that needs to be made is why a university is offering their Graduate Certificate Program. For example, McGill University offers the Driving Rehabilitation Program because it pairs well with their Occupational Therapy school (maybe this will be the future of LR's OT program?). Lenoir - Rhyne University offers their chaplaincy program because it pairs well with their school of theology. Mostly, a University is offering a program because their is a need in the community. The profession is calling for "cross-fertilization" of a professionals skill set and future talents that they need to learn to better their career and performance (McFadden et al, 2011). Expanding on the idea of addressing the needs of the community, these university's are really trying to bring in other areas of revenue. For example, Lenoir - Rhyne's programs are offered at a different rate than a degree program. The Graduate Certificate Program can be viewed as an area of extra revenue like a non-degree earning student, who pays considerably more for tuition than a full-time enrolled student in some programs.


McFadden, K. L., Chen, S., Munroe, D. J., Naftzger, J. R., & Selinger, E. M. (2011). Creating an Innovative Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate Program.Innovative Higher Education, 36(3), 161-176

McGill University. (2015, May 7). McGill Graduate Certificate Driving Rehabilitation. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLoQ2DSuPyk

Graduate Certificate Programs

Universities around the country offer specialized training in specific fields through graduate certificate programs. These programs are unique to individual organizations and students are not required to have the degree-seeking status to enroll the programs. The programs, however, are not eligible for financial aid unless the university seeks approval through the federal government, and school offering the program must approve the certificate program through the same process that degree programs are submitted through (Oregon Graduate School, Web). Once approved, the university offering the certificate can begin advertising and promoting their specialized form of education to students not seeking a masters degree.

Graduate Certificates are confusing to some because they are not degrees and do not come with a diploma. They are often completed within a year and specialize their focus on a specific field. To gain a full understanding of the difference between degrees and certificates watch the following video explaining the key differences.

These certificate programs offer quicker, more specific coursework for students who wish to change career fields or gain the information needed to receive a promotion in their current field.

Now, why do universities like Lenoir-Rhyne and Appalachian State offer these certificate programs when they already offer a full gamut of degree programs? They offer these programs for two reasons: to provide residents and students of the community with a wider range of educational tools to obtain the aforementioned job advancements or career changes, and they offer these programs to tap into a larger market for additional revenues. LR offers post-baccalaureate programs in accounting, healthcare admin, Dietetics, Christian counseling, community college admin, college teaching, narrative medicine and religious studies (The Graduate Program, pg. 2-3). Many of these programs are also offered as full degree programs as well. This provides the university with additional revenue sources similar to Workforce Development at the community college level. With so many options for people to educate and market themselves in todays economy, it has never been a better time for people to find the perfect career through the most efficient means possible.

References

(2015). Retrieved October 4, 2015, from http://registrar.lr.edu/sites/registrar.lr.edu/files/LR Graduate Catalog 2015-2016 SECTION 1 GRAD PROGRAMS_B.pdf

Degree vs Certificate Programs - Which should you choose? (2014, August 25). Retrieved October 4, 2015

Administering a Graduate Certificate Program. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2015.

A Holistic Approach to Workforce Development







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Our topic of Workforce Development truly resonated with me for a couple of reasons.  First, as a graduate of a community college vocational/technical program, I personally experienced the reward of workforce development when I was employed at a local hospital at 20 years of age.  Secondly, as a vocational/technical program educator, I value and promote the partnerships between our Nuclear Medicine Technology program and area healthcare facilities.  You see without these partnerships our students would not have the clinical education experiences needed for degree completion and certification.  Additionally, these partnerships provide the Nuclear Medicine Technology profession with quality highly skilled technologists in the community.
Partnerships between the community and industry is the foundation for community colleges.  These institutions exist to address the educational needs of the community it serves and therefore has been the driving force in workforce development. Students of all ages and educational levels turn to community colleges to provide them with the necessary skills and education to enter the workforce.  As a result, community colleges have responded by providing credit and non-credit job training courses.  In many institutions non-credit enrollment exceeds the number of enrolled credit students.  For instance, Forsyth Tech served 24,342 non-credit students and 12,968 credit students during the 2013-2014 academic year (Forsyth Tech, 2015).
While the fundamental approach between vocational/technical credit programs and non-credit programs is workforce development, most community colleges structurally separate them within the organization.  It is my opinion this silos workforce development faculty and staff and inhibits collaboration towards the common goal of workforce development.  This is evidenced by the challenges I have encountered in trying to collaborate with the non-credit Nursing Assistance I program to provide our students with the necessary patient care soft skills needed to start many health technology programs.  The Nursing Assistance I program exists to provide specific job skills to obtain certification and job placement but does not award curriculum credit.  The credit versus non-credit delineation creates challenges in programs where these skills overlap and de-emphasize the cross disciplinary workforce development opportunity. 
I question whether a more holistic approach between continuing education and curriculum programs would strengthen the workforce development pathway.  Has North Carolina Community Colleges complicated workforce development educational pathways?  The answer to this questions requires inquiry and thought to this matter.  Let's take some time to evaluate other community college system approaches to workforce development and then consider our options.

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4KFgBaEluE

References:
Forsyth Tech, (2015). Fast facts. Retrieved from http://www.forsythtech.edu/discover/fast-facts/

The budgetary grip of enrollment.

Many important subjects have been conversed in this class regarding the future state of higher education, the future state of many facets that make up higher education (state funds available, new ways to generate revenue, building a budget and so forth), some external factors that make up issues that higher education professionals need to take into consideration when planning the success of your institution. Planning the financial success of an institution may result in tough and emotional decisions but the correct decisions may be necessary for the sustainability of the institution.

What may be the most important subject spoken about, enrollment projections, is something that is relevant to my personal day to day work. I understand how a budget is built around enrollment projections. I understand the impact of exceeding those enrollment projections or coming up short on those projections. To quote the class assigned text "The development of a campus enrollment plan, based on predictions of acceptance rates for applicants and retention rates for current students, usually occurs on a different than that of the budget process. The enrollment plan in the aggregate must be connected to the budget process because it will influence estimates of tuition and student fees revenues, enrollment-driven expenses such as faculty salaries, and buying decisions made by auxiliaries such as the bookstore and dining services" (Goldstein, 2005).

While pondering the importance of enrollment planning and comparing it to the text this semester, I was interested enough to find an article related to enrollment planning, budget crunching and faculty salaries for a university that is trying to evolve but also trying to keep their doors open. Southern Maine University used enrollment planning and a unique faculty salary spending plan to save their university. While cutting faculty is never ideal and can be an emotional setting for students and faculty, with government officials cutting education more and more each day, innovative budget planning needs to be exercised.

References

Fowler, Richard. [The Richard Fowler Show]. 2015, March 27. Schools Plan Massive Layoffs After Scott Walker Guts Funding. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoPo_q11_uA

Goldstein, L. (2005). College & University Budgeting: An Introduction for Faculty and Academic Administrators (Third ed.). Washington, DC: NACUBO

Rivard, R. (2014, March 24). Exiled in Maine. In Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved October 4, 2015, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/24/fight-over-layoffs-university-southern-maine-boils-over

The Changing Workforce

Since the last post we have focused on Community Colleges and their challenging fiscal times as well as this week focusing on the changing workforce and ways in which universities can make money in order to offset operating costs. As the 21st-Century at Work article stated older people bring strengths to the workforce different than what younger people bring. However, with an older population workforce they pose greater support costs than a younger population. In addition, this article suggests the diverse workforce is due to the immigrants. 21st-Century at Work also suggests with the increasing rates of female workers, the decreasing of male workers, have brought the labor force close to gender balance. With the change in the labor force and more and more women being present in the workforce, many employers and people have begun to realize that people have responsibilities outside of work. I can relate to the responsibilities outside of work. Being a college coach as well as still be a student, I have responsibilities both with work and outside of work. However, I also want to be able to enjoy life with family and friends. So with the added responsibilities on my plate having the work life balance is very big in my life. However, most of the work-life balance takes place outside of our playing season. Once our season starts my life consists of work and school, not much time to enjoy life outside of that. However, as I continue to tell myself balancing work and school right now will only continue to help me down the road. As our world continues to change and our workforce has to evolve due to the society we are in I think the whole work-life balance will continue to be a part of everyone's world. Even though Lenoir-Rhyne University does not have a workforce development program at the University, with a short drive down the road at Catawba Valley Community College people are able to use this program for their benefit. An article put out by Business Insider talks about 39 ways the American workforce is changing. You can find the article at this link http://www.businessinsider.com/39-ways-the-american-workforce-is-changing-2015-6
It is very interesting to see the different programs that are offered at Community Colleges that are not offered at Universities, one being the workforce development program.

References:

Video- Regus USA. (2015, March 23). Adapt to the changing needs of your workforce. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSLKBwzXNv0

Bort, J., (2015). 39 ways the american workforce is dramatically changing in 2015. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/39-ways-the-american-workforce-is-changing-2015-6

Workforce development innovation center. Retrieved from http://www.cvcc.edu/workforce_development/