As budgets become tighter at Northwest College, expenditures are spurring more discussion among its leaders.

At its October meeting, the NWC Board of Trustees debated spending $50,000 on a contract extension with CampusWorks, a higher education consulting firm. The school’s purchasing policies require expenditures of $50,000 or more to come before the board.

The college had contracted with CampusWorks to conduct a series of community and staff engagement efforts aimed at developing a strategy to be used in the college’s institutional transformation (see related story).

The cost of that first phase was $32,640, much of which was covered from savings resulting from pandemic-related cancellations of travel and events.

The second and third phases of the contract are to provide an “internal and external scan” of the institution and create a business case — a document that captures the reasoning for initiating a project.

The second phase, according to the contract overview, will help NWC identify current capabilities and the gap between the college today and proposed strategic options, provide recommendations about which of those options will best support the college, support the development of a business case, finalize the development of a compelling core idea statement and test the feasibility of that statement.

The third phase will provide the college with a business case the college can act upon, as well as a roadmap based on the findings and recommendations developed in Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Pointing out that the cost of the next two phases was the equivalent of the cost of funding a full-time position for a year, Trustee John Housel questioned whether it was the right time for such an expenditure. The college is facing a projected $3 million shortfall in the coming biennium, and closing that gap could require layoffs.

Housel said discussions on rebranding the college are ramping up, and if NWC proceeds with the plan, it’s going to be costly.

“I’d rather see the money spent for that purpose,” Housel said. With NWC President Stefani Hicswa on the verge of departing the college, Housel also warned that a search for a new leader would also be an expense.

Trustee Carolyn Danko countered that CampusWorks would lend their expertise to rebranding the college, saving money in the long run. Hicswa said the firm wouldn’t go through the process, such as developing a logo and marketing materials, but would provide an analysis that would help the college make decisions on the rebranding effort.

At the time of the meeting, it was unclear whether Hicswa would depart for a chancellor position with Montana State University-Billings (she later was offered and accepted the job) and Trustee Mark Wurzel said the board could wait to vote on the CampusWorks contract until November. However, Board President Dusty Spomer said a search for a new president could take months, which would mean an extensive delay in moving forward with the institutional transformation work that CampusWorks had already begun.

“I don’t know that our community can wait on that,” Spomer said.

Hicswa said that regardless of whether she remained president, the goal of institutional transformation would remain. Delaying the effort would only make the transformation that much more difficult and possibly more costly, she said.

“I would urge you to move forward,” Hicswa said.

The board voted in favor of the contract extension, with Housel voting against the motion.