on the cover / By Heidi Walters

Panic Attack

(Jan. 4, 2007)  It was Halloween, and almost everyone was having a fine, silly time inside the big old house in Eureka. Never mind whose house. All that matters, really, is that despite the general merriment, the party had its scary moments. Take, for instance, the sudden conversation that sprang up in the kitchen among a number of College of the Redwoods faculty, of various disciplines, who were looking neither merry nor silly — some hadn’t even had the heart to put on a costume. One of them happened to mention that some newspaper (this one, actually) had recently done a story on the farm owned by the college and its apparent neglect. The paper, he said, “was missing the story — completely. The farm — puh. It’s just a tiny little side issue compared with what’s really going.”

The real story, he said, is that CR is falling into an abyss, careening off the cliff, spinning into oblivion, dissipating into nothingness. OK, he didn’t really put it that way. But he and the others in the kitchen were full of ill portent: CR is in trouble, they said. Enrollment had taken a nosedive. The budget followed it. Concurrently, the college was under an extended warning from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (part of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges). Not to mention that the college was president-less at the moment, following the departure of Casey Crabill in July for a new presidency at Raritan Valley College in New Jersey. And what about the new buildings underway on campus — sure, the campus is underlain with earthquake faults, and some old buildings apparently could be compromised — but was now the time to be building new structures? Squabbles were breaking out between faculty, administration and the Board of Trustees, indicating a deepening dysfunction.

GALLERY >

But the financial crisis — that was the biggie. Several teachers in the kitchen that night said they’d lost faith in their college and were, off the record, looking for new jobs at other colleges — anywhere in the country that was hiring. “Anywhere,” affirmed one woman. “We don’t want to leave, we love it here, we’ve made our home here. But we need to stay employed.”

Post-party, and in the light of day, one had to wonder: Is it really that bad at CR? Will that pretty little campus in the woodsy hills south of Eureka — and its handy instructional sites flung far and wide between Mendocino and Del Norte counties — become the latest messy red splotch on the North Coast economic (and cultural) landscape?

Well, some surmise that while CR’s troubles are major they are not, in fact, life-threatening — even if they have spawned panic in the CR community. Others say, look out — there’s reason for the panic.

No money

The worst news came in November: The college — which currently has 336 permanent employees (part-time and full-time faculty, classified staff, managers and administrators) and, as of December, 618 part-time temporary faculty and classified staff (this number changes monthly) — was looking at a $3 million, and possibly $4 million, deficit. The severity of the shortfall was a shock, and the result of a combination of factors.

Enrollment is the biggest factor. It has persistently declined over the past four years, and, currently, for every lost full-time-equivalent student (FTES), the college is out $4,367 from the state. (FTES is equal to the total number of credits all students have signed up for at a given time, divided by a full course load of 30 credits per school year. Fees from students actually go into the state’s coffers, and then the state uses the FTES number to determine how much tax money to give the college.) In academic year 2001-2002, when CR hit a peak in enrollment, there were 5,686 FTES (and the state gave colleges $4,675 per FTES). Enrollment has declined since then in fits and starts, with a particularly large decrease in 2004-2005 of 9.8 percent from the previous year (falling from 5,515 students to 4,974). In 2005-2006, there were 4,907 students — a smaller drop, and perhaps reason for some hope at the beginning of 2006.

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