On October 26, Student Senate held a general assembly meeting. The highlight of the meeting was having guest speakers from the financial department, Randy Weber and Rachel Lierz, came to discuss the college’s financial status.
“First of all, I want to share with you all where JCCC gets its money from.” Rachel Lierz, Associate Vice President Financial Services, said, referring to the colleges’ 20-21 budget book.
- 67% or $106,429,442 comes from Ad Valorem taxes which is property taxes that comes from homeowners and businesses
- 18% or $28,704,855 comes from Tuition and fees
- 13% or $20,010,102 comes from state grant
- 2% or $3,183,499 comes from other income mostly from investment earningAfter Lierz shared how the college acquires money, she explained how the money is used.
- 56% or $89,678,519 is spent on salaries
- 19% or $31,298,388 is spent on benefits
- 19% or $30,389,149 is spent on current operating and grants
- 4% or $7,004,452 is spent on capital
- 2% or $3,688,113 is spent on debt the college owes
“The reason I want to bring this information to you today is because the college is getting ready to work with the board of trustees which is the governing body of the college to start our budget process and recommend our tuition rates for next year,” Lierz said. “What we are considering recommending is that tuition rates stay the same as they are right now. We are able to do that because the college is at a healthy financial position even with the virus.”
Although the college seems to be responding well, it has come with little bit of a cost.
“That is not to say the virus hasn’t impacted us. We know our enrollment is down, state funding may decrease, and we actually reduced $6 million dollars from our planned expenditures this year to cautiously approach the year.” Lierz said.
Following the financial report, Sailor Usher discussed Student Sustainability Committee had an online event last week where leading experts in the environmental field came together to talk about combating major environmental issues.
Student Life and student senate will work together to host a Pumpkin Carving Contest. Students can send pics of unique ways of carving pumpkin to win the contest. To enter, you must RSVP on the get involved page.
By Yohannes Girma