Dateline: June 12, 2003

CC hopes to avoid further job cuts 

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Clarendon College faces an additional 2.8 percent cut in state funding if the current budget in Austin is approved, but CC President Myles Shelton hopes to avoid any further cuts in services or personnel.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Shelton said. “With the cuts we’ve already made and the increase in tuition and fees, we feel like we won’t have to make further cuts.”

Looking at the current numbers coming from the Legislature, Clarendon College’s state funding has been slashed from $2.318 million to $2.09 million, a total reduction of about 9.8 percent. CC already cut its spending by seven percent in February, resulting in the elimination of five staff positions as well as spending restrictions.

While Shelton says his intentions are to not have any more personnel reductions, the college is not yet absolutely certain of its funding for next year.

“We’re still sorting through the bills,” Shelton said. “There’s a lot of things we don’t know. The state comptroller has to certify the budget, and then the governor has to sign it.”

The college is also uncertain about the financing for its employee health insurance. The state mandates coverage and last year funded CC with $401,465 to cover its employees. Now that number has been slashed to $299,224, and the state has stopped providing any funds to cover physical plant employees.

“There have been a lot of changes in the way the health insurance is administered, and we don’t know yet what our $299,224 will buy.”

The situation for CC is better now than it was four months ago in that the college is about to write its budget for the 2003-2004 year.

“We’ve got more flexibility going into this budget than we did when we had to cut spending in the middle of the year.”

In March the CC Board of Regents approved increasing in-district tuition by $15 per semester hour, $16 for Texas students, and $20 for out of state students. That made CC’s total tuition costs $51, $66, and $81 in each respective category, which is not anticipated to harm the college’s competitiveness.

The college also is introducing new programs to help bolster enrollment and bring in more money.

Numbers for the first summer session this year are way up. Total enrollment for the college and its satellite campuses is 225 compared to 167 last year.