RVCC 2019 NECHE Self-Study

udget for this program was increased from $7,750 to $8,250 to ensure sufficient supplies
for all students.
Once the budget is approved at the college level, it goes to the CCSNH Office before being
evaluated by the Board of Trustees Finance Committee, the full Board of Trustees, and
ultimately by the State of NH. Weekly budget reports are sent to all Department Chairs,
Department Heads, and Program Coordinators to help them track their fiscal year
expenses.
Each fall and spring a budget forecast is completed to recalibrate the budget and realign
with the needs of RVCC. In general, each year, RVCC follows a rough estimate that
enrollment between fall and spring semester will decrease by 7% due to attrition. As a
result of this prediction, we recalibrate our year ending revenue for tuition and fees. The
final enrollment numbers in the Fall of 2017 indicated that RVCC was down by 6.3%. The
result was to reforecast our tuition revenue from $3.8 million to $3.2 million. At the same
time, a vacant staff position affected our projection for revenue. Thus, the original budget
developed the previous spring decreased from $9.8 million to $9.2 million. Because of this,
there was a need to reduce the general operating expenses by 2%, bringing the original
operating expense budget from $2.176 million to $2.143 million. To do this, we reduced
the hours of operations, including early closures on evenings when there were no classes;
closing the buildings on Saturday; and shifting staff schedules to decrease overtime. As a
result, in Fiscal Year 2018, we were able to save $13,518 in overtime.
Much work has been done in collaboration with the academic department to evaluate
scheduling of courses to maximize building usage and reduce open hours. In Summer of
2018, the College piloted a modified schedule at the Lebanon Academic Center with a
focus on evening hours. This was a result of the evaluation of course tallies which showed
evening classes as the best for student schedules. By continuing to use course tally data
effectively to schedule building hours, we hope to improve the ratio of income vs. expense
at the LAC. This system was re-evaluated after Summer of 2018, and feedback from the
Lebanon Advisory Board and community indicated that they wanted the College to have a
larger presence as opposed to just evening hours. In Fall of 2018, RVCC re-opened the
LAC for daytime and evening hours with a focus on increasing usage of the building via
continuing education courses.
As a human capital organization, RVCC’s budget has traditionally consisted of roughly 78%
salaries and benefits while other expenses account for roughly 22% of the total costs to
the institution (Figure 7.2)
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