Columbus State budget deficit means layoffs for community college staff
Columbus State Community College, facing a greater-than-expected budget deficit, is undergoing layoffs and belt-tightening this semester to balance its budget.
The college's financial problems mirror challenges facing many community colleges as they deal with pandemic-related enrollment dips, less than expected state money and fallout from a potential scandal at another community college.
Three Columbus State executives — Aletha Shipley, senior vice president and chief financial officer; Kelly Weir, associate vice president for resource planning and analysis, and Executive Vice President Rebecca Butler — shared the news during a virtual collegewide town hall on March 28, obtained by The Dispatch through a request under the Ohio Public Records Act.
When Columbus State approached its board of trustees last May to approve its budget, the college was anticipating it would end the fiscal year with about a $4.4-million deficit. College leaders went back to the board in January with a more grim prediction of a $6.8-million deficit.
Though the fiscal year 2025 budget has yet to be set, Butler said the college is "projecting a pretty significant, at this point, budget deficit." Weir said the college has one more year of emergency reserves to lean on.
While some may find the figures startling, Shipley said, this didn't come as a total surprise.
"We know that we've had three years through the pandemic and we had planned for a three-year recovery to dig our way back out," she said.
That three-year plan is now in its second year and includes, among other cuts, staff reductions. Layoffs have been taking place throughout the semester, Butler said.
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Columbus State spokesman Brent Wilder confirmed that the college has eliminated 14 positions, none of which were teaching positions. It has also implemented a review process for open positions and other "efficiency measures."
"Columbus State remains laser-focused on our mission and the opportunities to elevate economic prosperity throughout the region," Wilder said. "The college continues to utilize all resources — including federal grants, private philanthropy, and restricted funds for capital projects — to advance our mission."
What is driving Columbus State's budget deficit?
Columbus State is not alone in their predicament.
Community colleges nationwide were some of the hardest hit higher education institutions during the pandemic. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, fall enrollment at U.S. two-year public colleges has dropped from 5.2 million students in 2019 to 4.4 million in 2022, about a 15% decline.
Ohio was on trend with about 20,000 fewer students enrolled at community colleges between 2019 and 2022, according to the research center.
Enrollment is starting to rebound as Ohio's two-year public colleges saw a 2% enrollment increase statewide in fall 2023. But the rebound has been lower than expected at Columbus State, Shipley said.
Enrollment is still down 12% since fiscal year 2019, Butler said, and with that, credit completion is also down.
"Even though we are up this year from fiscal year 23, we have only recovered about 36% of the credits since fiscal year 2019," Butler said.
First-time students with no previous college experience completed about 76% of the credits they attempted in fiscal year 2019. Three years later, that's down to about 70%.
Butler said lower enrollment and credit completion both significantly impact how much money Columbus State receives from the state.
State Share of Instruction less than expected
State Share of Instruction, or SSI, is Ohio’s primary funding mechanism to subsidize the instructional costs at Ohio’s public colleges and universities. SSI funding is allocated to public institutions each fiscal year using a performance-based funding formula, according to the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
SSI funding for fiscal year 2024 for all Ohio two-year colleges totaled $484,972,000. Columbus State was projected to receive $78,548,343 of that funding when the budget was finalized, but the college received $375,148 less than expected this fiscal year.
Shipley said less state funding coupled with SSI increasing less than inflation has also hurt Columbus State's bottom line.
Eastern Gateway 'irregularities' hurting other schools
Administrators also blamed financial issues at Eastern Gateway Community College, a two-year community college in Steubenville, for negatively impacting the state's funding formula.
In January, officials from the Ohio Auditor's office, U.S. Secret Service agents, and state and local law enforcement officers conducted a search warrant at Eastern Gateway as part of an investigation into "matters of financial irregularities" at the college, Auditor Keith Faber said at the time.
Eastern Gateway has been in financial straits, and the college asked state lawmakers in December for a $12-million advance on state funds to help it meet payroll, which the state Controlling Board approved.
The Controlling Board ask came after Eastern Gateway ended a popular program that provided free college for 20,000 students last year. The U.S. Department of Education had ordered the college to halt enrollment over a possible violation of federal law over how it pays for students to attend classes.
Eastern Gateway saw a nearly 30% increase in its SSI funding this fiscal year. By comparison,Columbus State saw about a 3% increase.
"Eastern Gateway is still taking resources away from all community colleges... As their numbers ballooned that meant the rest of us all lost a little bit as Eastern Gateway's share increased," Shipley said.
Auditor spokesman Marc Kovac said the office is still investigating Eastern Gateway's finances and has no further update on the matter.
'Focus on advancing our students' success'
The future is not as dire for Columbus State as it is for other Ohio community colleges.
In February, Eastern Gateway announced it was pausing registrations and enrollment beyond this spring semester because of its financial issues. Faber said in April that Lakeland Community College in northeast Ohio is so "overstaffed and burdened with debt" that it is on the precipice of a fiscal watch.
“We have serious concerns about the college’s ability to continue to serve the residents of Lake County,” Faber said. “LKCC’s trajectory is unsustainable.”
Columbus State's Board of Trustees will meet later this month to discuss and approve the annual budget.
Butler said she understands how difficult layoffs and budget cuts can be. But, she said, the college has " a tremendously strong spirit" and "the Central Ohio community needs us and looks to us in in important and critical ways now more than ever."
"Friends, the single biggest thing that we can do," Butler said, "is all focus on advancing our students success and our enrollment outcomes, focusing on us doing our best work together."
Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for Extra Credit, her education newsletter, here.
@sheridan120
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus State Community College confronts layoffs to balance budget
