Accreditation - Hartnell College!!

Institutional Self Evaluation – 12-05-12
Fiscal Transparency: New shared governance committees, including the Resource
Allocation Committee and the Financial Information Subcommittee, revealed the budget and
the District‘s finances to inspection by all, and the District‘s finances became an integral part
of all planning processes.
The District went from having a dangerously low reserve level and a pattern of deficit
spending to an institution that planned enrollment growth to receive growth funding and that
could meet its present obligations and begin to save for future liabilities in a thoughtful,
planned way. It went from having separate planning processes in each functional area that
were not tied to the budget planning processes to having processes that are intimately tied
together.
Through the Superintendent/President‘s leadership, the college has promoted a conservative
approach to budgeting, always planning for the worst case scenarios presented by the state
financial analysts.
Participation of Shared Governance: The Superintendent/President anticipated the state
financial crisis and convened an expansive shared governance process in summer 2009 to
identify cost-cutting measures. The group looked at everything, and the District‘s Chief
Financial Officer was always at the table to answer all questions about the cost of specific
programs and services, and what could be gained by cutting back or eliminating them.
Contracts, facilities use, programs, and services were all scrutinized and cuts were made
comprehensively (IV.B.103). At the end of the work, when the group was still short of its
cost-cutting goal, it turned the remainder over to the employee groups, who all negotiated
how they would take their fair share of concessions. Each group negotiated their contribution
differently, but all contributed fairly.
Reserve Level: The college has acted frugally since summer 2009, to the extent that it
carries a reserve of over 20% as of Fall 2012. The budget for FY 2012-13 was the first in a
long time to be constructed intentionally as a deficit budget that will draw on the college‘s
reserves if Proposition 30 does not pass, and that will not require this draw if it passes.
Cost-Cutting: The Superintendent/President has put many cost-cutting measures in place.
With minor exceptions, salary scales have not changed since 2007. Vacant positions are not
automatically filled. Categorical student programs that serve similar populations have been
consolidated. Marketing dollars were cut to nearly zero. The practice of mailing class
schedules to all residents was stopped. The number of printed schedules were first reduced,
and now nearly eliminated in favor of electronic schedules. Some expensive, low-performing
programs were eliminated, and a costly reprographic shop was closed down. The theater
program, The Western Stage, which had been operating at a loss every year as a separate
non-profit, was brought into the college organizational structure, its management positions
were restructured, and it was given a budget to work within. These changes made it possible
for the college to maintain the theater program at substantial savings (IV.B.99).
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