Illaria Dana

Education Major

Financial hardships and budgetary woes have arrived at SMCC. If you are the type of student who cares about their education, if you are not aware of the fall out of these two concerns, then you need to continue reading. In fact, every student should read this, as it is not only yours but all of our educational experiences that are at stake.

SMCC has implemented structural changes as a result of a deficit in its budget. These changes have been termed the “realignment.” Their purpose is to maintain the integrity of SMCC as an institution while making relevant and financial adjustments to its programs.

Considering the scope and complexity of this “realignment,” this column is dedicated to explaining, hopefully in a clear and concise manner, where the cuts have been made, defining “realignment” in terms of the departmental needs and goals, and some of the rationales for these cuts. In the final edition of this semester, which comes out on May 10, The Beacon will delve further into what these cuts mean to the departments and the quality of education in these departments and across campus as the realignment unfolds and evolves.

While staff and faculty have been laid off, ten positions have been affected to date. One program has suspended enrollment with the intent of closing down the program, one program will be reconfigured in partnership with the University of Southern Maine, and three programs have lost faculty members.

The first casualties of the “realignment” are layoffs. A personal look at these layoffs was printed in our last edition of The Beacon in the interview with Dr. Genevieve Cox.

Last week, Charles Gregory, Dean of Academic Affairs, was kind enough to speak on the deficit and current variables that affect the cost of operating SMCC.

“Year to year, it is very difficult for the people who watch our budget to know exactly where we are, because of the following factors. Number one is the state appropriation that we get from the legislature. Typically we have a year warning if this amount is going to change. This makes up about a third of our budget. Our budget is about 40 million dollars. People make up about 75 percent of that budget.

“All of the employees received a three percent salary increase. It doesn’t sound like much, but those are big numbers, and they add up. This is variable number two.

“Variable number three is benefits: the cost of healthcare, the money that is invested in people that is not part of their salary.

“A variable that has gotten a lot of attention is tuition. The Board of Trustees has tried to keep the cost to the student reasonable. The current cost of tuition is 90 dollars per credit hour. SMCC is one of the lowest in New England. Our Board of Trustees wants that, because it helps students come to SMCC.

“One of the things we’re looking at doing is raising tuition, which always causes fear when you say that. We’re looking at raising the tuition two to three dollars per credit. For every dollar the system raises in tuition, SMCC gets approximately $100,000.”

The cost of tuition is largely determined by the Maine State Legislature.

“The Board of Trustees is meeting to seriously discuss the tuition future for the next academic year. In addition, President Cantor is anticipating approximately $1,000,000 as a deficit because of the costs of operation.”

While the Board of Trustees can recommend this increase, in the past, increased tuition has been declined by the Appropriations Committee of the Maine State Legislature to support students with economic hardship. These students need support to gain access to higher education. 60 percent of degree seeking students at SMCC were low income students in 2014-15.

In order to meet the demands of this deficit, the Construction Technology Department has suspended enrollment. Students who are currently enrolled will be able to continue their education next year. Once current students have graduated, the department will be closed.

As the department stands now, one full-time faculty has been laid off. A part-time instructor will teach these courses next year. The second full-time faculty member will be laid off once the program shuts down.

One has to wonder if this is the best course of action for SMCC, the construction industries in Maine, and Maine’s economy. While officials from the industry may state that the employees they hire do not need to have an Associates degree, given the technological advances in construction technologies, one could wonder if a shift with these advances in mind could position SMCC to play a significant role in this field.

Culinary Arts has a more complicated future. There were four full-time faculty members.Two full-time positions have been eliminated. Dean Gregory said, “We are trying to make the Culinary Arts Department more prestigious.” On an administrative level, this involves reaching out to local businesses, emphasizing contemporary trends in food such as “farm to table” that could involve the Horticulture Department.

SMCC will team up with USM to hire one full-time faculty to lead the Hospitality Management Program. Currently, there are no full-time faculty at either school to head this department.

The Nursing Department has lost two positions as well. Two full-time faculty are retiring, and their classes will be taught by part-time faculty members. Part-time faculty members are less expensive to the school, because their benefits are prorated and are less than full-time faculty. The Nursing Department has a high graduation rate, however, the cost of operation is also very high.

The estimated net deficit of the Nursing Department is $625,713 according to the Finance Summary by Degree Program, which was made available to all faculty in December 2015. Nursing has an estimated full-time enrollment of 93 students. After calculating the expenses of the department, the estimated net deficit per full-time enrolled student is $1,946. This illustrates the complexities of dealing with the deficit at SMCC.

Liberal Studies also lost two full-time faculty positions. These decisions were made based on seniority. The full-time sociology and philosophy professor positions were eliminated.

As stated in the last edition, Dr. Cox’s position has been eliminated, and those courses will be taught by adjuncts. The philosophy instructor, Richard Pitre, will remain at SMCC, because another full-time English professor decided to retire a year early.

Outside of department cuts, one dean and three staff members were laid off. In spite of these changes, Dean Gregory emphasized the importance of maintaining strong academic standards at SMCC. “As a college, if we start handing out grades, in the short-term we would increase enrollment. But in the long-term, we’d destroy our reputation.”

Drawing students is important to the future of SMCC. Dean Gregory continued, saying, “High school graduation is forecasted to decrease three percent a year. We also have a strong economy right now. Students are getting jobs, so they feel they don’t need to come to college and get a degree.

“We’re seeing a decline in full-time student enrollment of 5 percent a year. Interestingly, we’re seeing a slight increase in night classes,” which reflects the needs of students who have jobs and families who are returning to college.

According to the SMCC Fact Book for 2014-15, the total number of students served in 2011-12 was 11,977. In 2014-15 that number had dropped to 9,870.

In order to attract students, SMCC must continue to have desirable programs that are functionally relevant. The blend of vocational and academic tracks, as well as the students who are returning to college after an interim in the world, create an opportunity to realign not only the structure of academic departments but to abide by a new philosophy that serves students.

There is a strong administrative attempt to do this. It can be seen in President Cantor’s “On Their Terms, Not Ours,” (OTTNO). Of course this school must operate on our terms, however, our terms are not independent of the faculty. Student success is not possible without strong relationships between faculty and students.

As mentioned by Dr. Cox, the only advisors for students are full-time faculty members. This means that some full-time faculty members have over a hundred students they are supposed to advise. Without proper advising, the likelihood that students will succeed is greatly reduced. This is reflected in that data about student success provided in the most recent fact book.

In 2014, 23 percent of students at SMCC were unsuccessful in their courses. That’s 4,514 students. In addition, the persistence of first time students from Fall 2013 to Fall 2014 was only 46 percent overall. For transfer students, students transferred within three years of enrollment at a rate of only 46 percent overall.

Advisors do more than make sure students are taking the right classes to graduate. They generate excitement about learning that can only exist on the personal level. A system that purports connection but does not provide strong advisors and opportunities for students and faculty to connect is a failing system.

Students cannot be expected to reach out to their instructors and advisors on their own. This was evident in Phi Theta Kappa’s Chit Chat Program which provided free coffee for new students and their professors, hoping students would ask their professors to coffee. This program had limited involvement, because students were reluctant to ask their teachers for coffee.

While programs like these, implemented by the administration, are meant to service students, support for faculty to engage students must come first and in a manner that shows the administration has skin in the game.

While there are great faculty who are involved, all faculty members need to spend more time on campus, to have office hours, to advise groups and individual students. However, these changes would not be without cost.

Cuts alone are not enough to realign SMCC. The budgetary woes give us an incredible opportunity to set serious goals that can position the school to meet the needs of our students and the economy in an innovative and progressive way.