Trouble comes not singularly but in battalions, Shakespeare once said. For people turning to
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College for an affordable education, the battalions are growing.
Because the college’s budget appears to be shrinking.
Responding to a second request from the state community college system to send back 2 percent of its budget, RCCC’s top officials announced this week that they’re capping enrollment and putting all new programs on hold.
These sound like reasonable measures. Hardly anyone can afford to conduct business as usual these days, with the nation’s economic engine creaking to a near-halt and terrorism preoccupying everyone.
But when the college’s president, Dr. Dick Brownell, says students will be turned away —“And the open door will be closed for the first time” —the importance of this move comes through.
Rowan-Cabarrus Community College may no longer be able to accommodate the training needs the local population presents.
Students who turn to RCCC for liberal arts credits that transfer to other colleges are most likely to feel the pinch, according to Jerry Chandler, vice president of operations. While providing that service is a plus for the community, RCCC’s most important mission is providing technical training for workers headed into local industries. Classes in arts and sciences, business administration and information systems will continue, but the college will be less likely to add new sections when existing classes fill up. Students will be turned away and told to try again next term.
Ironically, RCCC sees its greatest demand in that area. Demand is lower for drafting and design technology, for example, and welding. But only RCCC can offer those kinds of technical classes, and they are central to the college’s mission. So, even though such classes involve more expensive equipment and fewer students, they will probably continue full speed ahead.
So, here’s the rub. At the very time when more people are turning to RCCC — factory workers who have been laid off, college-bound young adults whose families can’t afford a liberal arts college right now, others seeking new skills to help them find a job — RCCC is having to rein in its budget and limit classes. This would be nothing new at most other institutions of higher learning. Tales of being shut out of popular classes are legion at colleges and universities. But this is a first for
RCCC.
One would hope the college has streamlined all other expenses before announcing this step, and administrators say they have. RCCC has been a multi-campus college for 10 years now, incurring extra expenses that the state system has started budgeting for only in the past four years.
Add to all this the decision to cancel construction of a new building on the South Campus—a building mostly financed by a state bond issue —and the situation looks dire. Even if the college could not afford to equip and staff the building immediately, a building project could help the local economy. Perhaps the outlook would be brighter by the time construction was complete. RCCC officials apparently hold out no such hope.
The RCCC move sends troubling signals, both for the college and for the community. The battalions are indeed growing.
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