Editor:
Recent news stories (“CR Accreditation in Peril,” Blog Jammin, Feb. 9) about the accreditation and budget problems at College of the Redwoods don’t tell the whole story. Since the 2008-2009 school year, the number of administrators employed by the college has grown from 14 to 22. The college’s spending on its administrators’ salaries has increased 58 percent in the past two years. While the administration budget was growing at this healthy clip in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930s, the total salaries paid to tenure-track and tenured faculty at the college decreased by 7 percent in the same time frame. Recently, the college opened satellite campuses in McKinleyville and Garberville. The Garberville campus has cost the college over a million dollars and has never had more than 10 students. These two satellite campuses have never made financial sense, and a prudent administration would not have opened them.
One of the issues in the college’s accreditation fiasco is the lack of strategic planning. Currently, the college is in violation of the 50 percent rule, a state law that requires that at least 50 percent of the budget be spent on instruction of students. The purpose of this rule is to prevent colleges from becoming top-heavy with administrators. Due to a lack of sound planning and years of profligate spending, budget cuts are on the way. The Board of Trustees’ proposed solution: Lay off teaching faculty. This will aggravate the college’s violation of the 50 percent rule and make it more top heavy with administrators. Why not instead lay off the eight administrators added in the past three years and close the Garberville and McKinleyville campuses?
Peter Martin, Trinidad
This article appears in Burned by the Wait.
Big head small heart!
Top Heavy? try incompetent heavy…
The statement, ” The Board of Trustees’ proposed solution: Lay off teaching faculty” is incorrect. Due to the severity of the budget cuts and not knowing the results of the tax bill, CR needs to be prepared to take steps. One step MIGHT be laying off faculty. CRFO (the faculty union) requires formal notification of the POSSIBILITY of faculty layoffs, and IF that is to be one of the solutions, notice must be given by March 15. There are no contingency options with the union. Part of the budget solution is to engage everyone in finding solutions, to avoid the layoff of any employees at CR. This might well include layoff of administrators.
Close the campus and completely start fresh. Fire off everybody and get people who want to teach and work in the school.
Hello! Check this out. Average salary of CR faculty is 92K plus. One of the highest in the state. More than HSU!!
Albert,
You should check out the salaries of administrators and the ratio of administrators to full-time faculty. And, if you do the comparison with other state ccs, faculty at CR lie just about in the middle of the salary average. I think most intelligent people have come to reject the age-old argument that teachers are overpaid for what they do.
Sorry. Average administrator salary is 105K for 12 months. The school year is 9 months? So the 92K for 9 months is equal to 122K for 12 months. Faculty are overpaid. You academics can go ahead and do all the ratios to please only you. 9th rank in a state of over 100 cc’s does not make it middle of the pack. Source is the public data mart.
Cris,
We all understand about the union timelines and requirements. We all understand about the IF’s and the MIGHT’s and the possibilities. However, NO ONE in any leadership position at the college has EVER said anything to anyone at any time about the possibilities that ALL employees might have to make sacrifices, or that some administrators might need to take a pay cut or get laid off, or that we should try to do everything we can to avoid layoffs of ANY employees. That used to be clearly and frequenlty stated by our trustees and by various presidents over the years. They understood the value of CR to the community, not just as a college, but as an employer of high quality staff at all levels. So to hear, over and over, that we need to prepare for faculty layoffs, of course that’s going to make people, and especially faculty, a bit nervous to say the least!
forget the layoffs, get rid of all that dead weight!
Looks like the board will protect faculty. Only staff and administrators will get pink slips. All is forgiven. This is the best board!!! Hope you serve for ever and ever and ever…..Way to get rid of dead weight!!!! Pun intended!!!!!!!!