Clatsop Community College could see the elimination of half a dozen administrative positions to address projected funding challenges as it enters the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

The cuts, proposed in the college’s draft budget, include the elimination of a dean of career and technical education, director of computer services, chief financial officer, dean of enrollment services and registrar, full-time nursing director and administrative assistant in human resources. The nursing director role, which has previously been part time, would be consolidated with a new associate vice president of professional and technical programs position.

“I fully realize this has impacts. It’s tough,” President Jarrod Hogue told members of the college’s board of education at a meeting last week. “I do think there’s some operational efficiencies that will come from this, because we’ll have to, but primarily what drove these decisions is I did not want to make cuts for student-facing roles, student-facing instruction.”

One reason for the cuts is a drop in full-time equivalent enrollment, Hogue told board members. Oregon community colleges receive state funding from the Community College Support Fund, which uses a formula based on full-time equivalent enrollment. That state funding makes up about 30% of the college’s revenue.

According to data from the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, total FTE at Clatsop Community College dropped to 898.95 during the 2023-2024 academic year, down from 1,072.88 the previous year. Both those numbers are lower than prepandemic levels.

“The thing that’s concerning about our drop is that other colleges have not dropped. In fact, most colleges across the state are anywhere from 5 to 8% up,” Hogue told board members. “And so the downside of this, or the unfortunate side, is that our piece of the pie is getting smaller.”

Hogue said one likely reason for lower full-time equivalent enrollment is that the college had fewer course offerings in collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard and Tongue Point’s seamanship program this year due to curriculum update requirements from the National Maritime Center. He expects those courses to come back next year.

As the college looks to present a balanced budget, it’s needed to come up with around $600,000 in cost savings, said Julie Kovatch, director of communications and marketing. In addition to the staff cuts, other cost-savings measures include the nonrenewal of contracts for anthropology software and institutional research and state reporting, and a delay in hiring a full-time historic preservation and restoration faculty member, Hogue said in an email to staff.

Although some roles will be eliminated, Hogue said he also plans to establish new ones to support the college’s evolving needs. In addition to the associate vice president of professional and technical programs position, he also plans to establish a maritime director role to begin in the 2026-2027 academic year.

The draft budget still needs to be reviewed and approved by the college budget committee. From there, it will go before the college board for adoption in June. The budget committee’s first meeting, where it will receive the budget message and public comment, is set for April 22. Position eliminations would take effect July 1.

“We are a smaller college than we were five years ago, and I made the decision to continue to hold or eliminate positions that are unfilled and to eliminate some positions in senior leadership that are filled,” Hogue said.

“No one likes to have these conversations. I hated it. We have some employees that have been here a long time, and were notified they will not have a job next year.

“This is just part of the process. We have to present a balanced budget to the budget committee, and because we are anticipating fairly flat funding, but an increase of operational and personnel costs, we need to make these cuts.”