College community asked to help identify possible cuts

Northwest College leaders were braced for reductions in state and local funding for the coming year, but the actual revenue shortfall is worse than their previously envisioned worst-case scenario.

The final figures came in Wednesday night, showing a shortfall of $2.3 million for fiscal year 2016-17.

“We were looking at somewhere between $1.2 (million) and $2.2 (million), and we’re at $2.3 (million),” NWC President Stefani Hicswa said on Thursday.

While that’s a little higher than expected, it’s not a huge surprise considering what’s been happening with oil prices, Wyoming’s economy and the decline in Park County’s valuation, Hicswa said.

Mark Kitchen, NWC vice president for public relations, put that into perspective.

“In the nearly four decades I’ve been at Northwest, I don’t remember a revenue shortfall of this magnitude for one year,” he said Monday.

Kitchen said the college’s operating fund is around $22 million for one year, with roughly 75 percent of that going to salaries and benefits.

“So, when one strips out utilities and insurance, and the upkeep of the physical campus — those things that are required to just keep the doors open — that doesn’t leave a whole lot left.”

The shortfall consists of a $2 million, or 9 percent, decline in the college’s general operating fund and another $350,000, or nearly 36 percent, from the 1 mill fund, according to Hicswa.

Looking back to a shortfall several years ago when Paul Prestwich was president at Northwest College, Kitchen said all agencies then were instructed to cut 6 percent from their budgets.

“The way we chose to do that was by reducing 10 percent of our nonpersonnel operating budget,” he said.

That 6 percent has never been restored to the college, Kitchen said.

“We are having to make cuts in addition to that,” he said.

Hicswa said it’s too soon to know whether layoffs, or a reduction in force, will be needed to balance the college’s budget.

“I’m preparing for that, but I want to see what (recommendations) people come up with,” she said.

Some open positions will not be filled as a cost-saving measure, she said.

Hicswa said the revenue shortfall is a tough problem to deal with, “and I really approach it very seriously.”

There is a silver lining: Enrollment at the college has stabilized, and it could increase.

“We’re lucky we are not also adding declining enrollment with this,” Hicswa said.

That also is not surprising, since enrollment at community colleges tends to rise during economic downturns and with increases in unemployment.

At Northwest College, “our peak enrollment in 2009 corresponded almost exactly with unemployment,” Hicswa said.

Hicswa and Lisa Watson, NWC vice president for administrative services, met with budget managers Thursday morning about coming up with the needed cuts for the coming budget year.

“I handed out a bag of Dum Dums (suckers) and said, ‘You guys, this sucks,’” Hicswa recalled later.

Following that meeting, she sent an email to faculty and staff, advising them of the situation and asking for their ideas on the best ways to cut expenses.

“VP Watson will distribute detailed reports to the budget managers outlining budgets and expenditures for the past five years and give them specific amounts for their areas to reduce,” Hicswa said in the email. “It is important that we all work together to make the best decisions for the longterm sustainability of the college.”

“I had told the campus community that as soon as I knew what that number was, I would let them know,” Hicswa said Thursday afternoon. “This is a way ... to get their recommendations for running the college.”

Budget recommendations are due to Hicswa by April 15.

Hicswa said she was pleased by the responses so far from members of the campus community. 

“Everybody asked good questions for the best of the college,” she said.

Hicswa said Brad Bowen, who came on board last month as the college’s new finance director, “hit the ground running by doing an analysis for me.”

It’s been a fast break-in to the job for him, “but without these tough assignments, he wouldn’t have as much information now,” she added.