Randolph Community College has announced a number of personnel cuts related to the current declining state budget situation. In an e-mail to all employees on Wednesday, President Robert Shackleford said, "In recent months, we made several difficult changes in policies and procedures to help us weather the economic storm. We hoped that these changes would enable us to save all of our full-time jobs, although we knew that many of our part-time employees had to be cut. However, as the situation has continued to decline, it has become increasingly obvious that we can no longer meet our severely reduced budget without it affecting personnel. Therefore, with much regret, it is now painfully apparent that we simply cannot save every job at RCC."
Shackleford said 13 positions would be affected. These personnel moves are expected to save the college an additional quarter of a million dollars. Other cost-savings measures implemented in the last few months have included reducing the number of 12-month teaching contracts to 9- or 10-month contracts and moving classes from the summer months (which are not funded by the state) to the fall and spring semesters; increasing faculty teaching loads; reducing incentive pay for employees' educational attainment; and eliminating a number of part-time positions. Without the recent changes, Shackleford said the number of positions that the College would have to lose would be much higher. "However, it is an agonizing decision to cut any position because we know that it affects the lives of our employees and their families," he said.
The North Carolina state budget outlook has deteriorated dramatically in recent months. When community colleges were first warned of budget cuts several months ago, they were told to analyze the effects of a 3% budget cut (probable), a 5% cut (possible), and a 7% cut (worst-case scenario). Since then, expected revenues have come in drastically short.
State officials have implemented a 0.5% pay cut on all state employees for the current fiscal year with 10 hours of furlough time. In addition, current budget discussions have included overall cuts as large as 11-14% for the next two fiscal years and may include additional pay cuts and furloughs for employees. Shackleford noted, "There is some indication that it could possibly come in worse than that before it's over."
Shackleford expressed his appreciation of the contribution and patience of all RCC employees "during this extremely anxious time, and your commitment to your work even while the economy has been a daily distraction and concern. This is a very difficult situation, but I assure you that we are doing all we can do with the resources we are given to work with. While we deeply regret that some will be severely affected by our budget crisis, we are making every effort to save as many jobs as we can as we serve students in the best way possible."
