College identifies budget priorities

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Groundwork laid for next fiscal year

By Ben Markley

The college, for the second fiscal year, utilized a strategy known as Prioritizing the Budget Strategically (PBS) to plan the budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

“The purpose is to reflect putting our money, as the president says, where our mouth is, to support the college’s strategic objectives,” said Don Perkins, executive director of Budget and Auxiliary Services.

PBS uses three basic categories to classify programs at the college—meritorious, sustainable and under review.

“Meritorious” refers to productive programs that require more funding. “Sustainable” refers to productive programs that are financially stable with their current funding. “Under review” refers to underachieving or redundant programs.

“Everybody sits down and looks at what they’re doing and classifies things in those areas more or less,” said Joe Sopcich, executive vice president of Administrative Services. “So perhaps some funds for something ‘under review’ can be reallocated to something ‘meritorious.’”

Perkins said the college has classified programs through PBS and has come up with a budget approximately the same size as the budget of the last fiscal year.

He outlined some areas the college had defined as “meritorious” of more funding.

“An area called ‘developing programs’ is one,” he said. “Another one might be Center for Innovation. We have a purpose to add funds for student orientation, making more programs to help them be successful.”

He also mentioned compensation studies and technology for staff and students as other meritorious areas.

Sopcich said the college’s main challenge in budget planning was flat revenues.

“The demands are always greater year after year,” he said. “The organization cannot afford to be stagnant”

He said student needs, particularly quality instruction, are the primary concern of budget planning.

“Student success and student learning is the number one priority,” Sopcich said. “That’s kind of what drives everything. Those are the priorities of the institution.”

Student Daniel Russo laid out what he thought budget priorities should be.

“Staff and professors should be top priority,” he said. “After that, put money toward campus buildings and maintenance.”

He also said more money should be placed toward international students.

“I think international students would really benefit from living in an apartment funded by the college instead of host homes,” Russo said. “And more scholarships.”

Perkins said budget cuts would come in the form of small cuts here and there rather than cutting entire programs.

“We trimmed some fat last year,” he said. “There are simply a number of areas across the branches, and I would describe them as being small amounts in main areas.”

Perkins cited cuts to workman’s compensation insurance as an example.

“We have a reserve fund that we use for that,” he said. “It’s funded well, and now we can back off the annual funding.”

Perkins said budget planning tried to account for incoming revenues from local property taxes and state aid as well as enrollment numbers.

“We need to consider what is going to happen as far as enrollment growth is concerned,” he said. “That impacts our revenues. It also impacts the expenses we need to plan for.”

Sopcich particularly credited college president Terry Calaway for budgetary success.

“Dr. Calaway is really driving this process, and it’s a good one, and it kind of reinvigorates how we output our dollars here,” he said.

Despite flat revenues, Sopcich expressed pride in the college.

“I think it’s a great compliment to staff here that we’ve been able to accommodate increases in enrollment and continue to do a great job in the classroom and provide students services they need to pursue success when our revenues have been more or less flat,” he said.

Contact Ben Markley, staff reporter, at bmarkle2@jccc.edu.

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