HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Like any other tax-funded entity, Hutchinson Community College is feeling the budget pinch connected to the COVID 19 pandemic.
“We face kind of an uncertain future of knowing what our revenue collections are going to be in the upcoming fiscal year," Hutch CC President Dr. Carter File said. “Every indication that we’re getting at this moment is showing and telling us that we’re going to be facing significant revenue shortfalls next year.”
File says they have made a number of furloughs at the school but have been able to keep most of the faculty positions intact.
“So far we’ve furloughed...a number of individuals for between three and eight weeks, for the summer and that, will generate some cost savings,” File said. “We have a number of open positions that we’re not going to fill and those are due to retirement or because individuals have quit.”
The positions furloughed do not include faculty although some have retired or left and those positions will be left vacant, according to File.
File says one thing that might ease some of the financial blow is that more students may be staying closer to home in these tough financial times and taking more classes locally online.
“We really hope to see that online enrollment is up and that even the face-to-face enrollment is up as students want to stay closer to home or want to go to a smaller institution,” File said. “A lot of students are talking about taking a gap year between their senior year and starting college.”
File stressed that if students take a year off that they at least get some online classes done so they can get off to a good start when they decide to attend school full time.
File says the cuts amount to about 7% or about $3 million.
“We are trying to plan for what we think is a realistic reduction in revenue.”