PPCC president's 'armageddon' budget includes pay freezes, tuition hikes
As lawmakers battle over a proposed $300 million reduction in appropriations for state-funded colleges and universities next school year, Pikes Peak Community College President Tony Kinkel is bracing for a worst-case scenario. It likely may become a reality, he said Wednesday.
PPCC, the second largest community college in the state's system, stands to lose $8.8 million in state funding - about half of what it received this school year - if the Legislature approves the cuts to balance the budget shortfall resulting from decreased sales tax revenue.
Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday halted a move to tap into a surplus of the state workers' compensation insurance fund, which the Senate had approved Monday. Kinkel said that strategy would have been "a one-time fix" and next year, PPCC and other colleges and universities would once again be facing dramatic state cutbacks.
Later in the day, Democratic legislators offered other ideas to avoid the massive cuts in higher education. If they come through, Kinkel said, PPCC could ease up on its own budget cuts, but he seemed skeptical that there will be any dramatic relief for higher ed.
"It's so fluid. Our hopes go up, and then they go down. Until I see it signed on the dotted line by the governor, I don't trust any of it," he said.
The 2009-10 PPCC "armageddon" budget Kinkel will submit May 1 to a 17-member leadership council of students, faculty and staff calls for freezing salaries for all 525 full-time employees, eliminating two deans and some vacant positions, not rehiring 15 faculty members who have short-term contracts, delaying expansion on the Rampart campus and dipping into reserve funds and instituting furloughs, among other measures.
Tuition also would increase 9 percent and student fees nearly 4 percent. Full-time students now pay about $1,500 a semester for books, tuition and fees.
PPCC's proposed $39.6 million budget is $3.1 million less than this year's, Kinkel said. Yet the college had an 11 percent enrollment increase this semester, bringing the student body at its four campuses to 12,400.
The budget assumes the same rate of enrollment growth next year, which would help mitigate a state funding cut. But Kinkel said he's unsure if the expectation is realistic because higher costs might preclude some people from enrolling.
If budget cuts are as dramatic as Kinkel expects, students will definitely feel the pinch, he said.
"They'll notice a slowdown in services, such as phones being answered or counselors being available. They'll feel a bite on their tuition. They'll have fewer choices when it comes to classes. It makes it much more difficult on the students," he said.
Several students said they're already strapped, and the looming budget cuts and tuition hikes won't help.
"It would mean more Ramen noodles," Erick Rincon, a 19-year-old psychology major, said Wednesday while taking a lunch break at the Centennial campus.
"I'm poor now, so it would be even worse," chimed in 19-year-old criminal justice student Samantha Strahan. "I'm already having to live with my mom and get financial aid."
Rincon said classes already are large, and if there were fewer offerings and faculty, "it could make for not a good learning experience."
But when it comes to getting a degree or certificate, many students feel like they don't have a choice, said 19-year-old nursing student Stephanie Garrett.
"With the economy the way it is, you have to have an education to get a good job to survive," she said. "This will just make it harder."
PPCC began preparing for budget reductions last fall and has shaved $1 million since Nov. 1 by eliminating 28 vacant positions, freezing out-of-state travel and professional development funding, and taking other steps.
