RVCC 2019 NECHE Self-Study

Similar to many organizations where the majority of the workforce is under the control of a
Collective Bargaining Agreement, the salary increases are dictated by the CBA, often times
before the budget is even created. As a result of salary increases being created before the
budget is determined, the non-salary and benefits expenses of the budget are often
reduced. The remaining 22%, of the expense budget consists of all other expenses
needed for operations. Over the past 3 years, between 4% and 7% of the remaining
expense budget, after salaries and expenses, were shared service allocations provided to
the CCSNH system office for the support of their services to RVCC. These include
Information Technology the procurement process regarding to high level purchasing,
contract management, and check processing.
One area that has seen great improvement on campus is academic technology. Computer
labs, faculty computers, and classroom technology were historically managed on a small
budget of $93,000. In FY2018, the department was allocated an additional $80,000;
however, they only used $37,000 of that allotment due to an inconsistent policy for
technology inventory and replacement. This task was emphasized when hiring a new IT
Manager in Fall of 2018. One of the IT Manager’s first tasks upon hire was to do a physical
inventory of the technology in the buildings, including evaluating the age of faculty and
staff computers. As of Fall 2018, 90% of faculty and staff computers have been upgraded
as well as adding teaching computers to the majority of general use classrooms, updating
computer labs, and setting up online conferencing classrooms at all three locations.
Another change that will impact the RVCC Budget was the CCSNH Board of Trustees
passage of a new policy in Spring of 2018 which increases lab fees and the cost of the
Clinical Surcharge from $350 to $500 effective Fall 2018. Prior to Fall 2018, this surcharge
was only assessed to Nursing students but the increase in cost was also added to the
Occupational Therapy Assistant and Physical Therapist Assistant programs. These
increased fees go into the general fund. While some fees were increased, the Board of
Trustees also voted to eliminate several fees assessed to students, such as application
fees, orientation fees, and graduation fees which were seen as barriers to students
attending colleges across CCSNH. The hope is that with such barriers removed, we will
see benefits in enrollment.
104 | P a g e