Green River Community College (GRCC) has 7 percent more students this year than it did last year. This is more than likely due to the poor economy Washington state is going through right now. With employees getting laid off, they come to GRCC for enrollment with the training programs provided.
This year GRCC is over-enrolled by 18 percent. A state allocation is given to colleges for full-time equivalent (FTE) students. This allows for two-year colleges to open their doors for more students as opposed to four-year colleges which do not allow for more students to register if they are overenrolled. The Legislature funded 6,200 Work Study FTE’s while 9,000 of them were served by community colleges.
This year’s goal for FTE’s is 16,911 which are broken up into quarters according to the busier quarters. Currently GRCC is running approximately 11 percent over the FTE’s target. According to John Ramsey, director of public information, “the enrollment system works like a reverse economy because when an economy is bad then there are more students, but when the economy is good it’s the opposite.”
GRCC is partially known for its Work Study program, which is at an all-time high right now. If a $22 million reduction were to occur, then the Work Study program would be removed from GRCC. With unemployment so high, only 16,000 community and technical college students are eligible for Work Study.
There are 34 local community and technical colleges which are provided with about a $30 million state budget per year. We are beginning to see more and more budget cuts each year. GRCC staff members are working under a 9 percent budget cut from last year with another 6 percent cut off this year. On top of that, the legislature raised tuition by 7 percent last year and the legislature is now deciding whether to increase this year’s tuition by another 7 percent.
This makes it harder for students to pay tuition, causing them to take out more loans and possibly put in more work hours. Letters and requests written by GRCC students have been sent to Olympia to give student opinions of the latest budget cuts. In the meantime, students and staff can start helping by watching out for expenses. As of right now, GRCC is saving money by reorganizing its workload, spending less on unnecessary equipment and cutting back on off-campus trips.
Last year GRCC’s goal for saving money was $300,000, and this year it is $600,000.
“I think we can probably say we will save $600,000 because last year we over-shot our goal by $500,000,” Ramsey said. Due to the higher enrollment, more tuition revenues will need to be collected. The amount that needs to be reached for tuition income is close to $3.2 million.
The governor not only made budget cuts to schools but also she has stopped funding for financial aid, grants and loans for students. The loss of grants will subtract more than $800,000 from the school’s budget. The governor believes this will help cut down on the state’s overall spending. In 2009, finances for construction at the Kent campus was taken out of Kent’s own funding due to a technical error, which Gregoire has thus allocated in the supplemental budget plan for this year. The legislature will make its final decisions and allocations by mid-March.
Be the first to comment on this article!