Cam King
Equinox Staff
Between the cutting of the adjunct instructors’ fiscal budget and the limiting of financial assistance from the State of New Hampshire, college administrators struggle to maintain a low-cost public college while refuting internal issues.
After last week’s release of adjunct instructor Leigh Corrette’s letter to the college citing multiple problems with the administration’s handling of the collegiate issues, the administration is speaking out.
“The administration is the right size,” said Emile Netzhammer, Provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. “Many of the statements made in the letter were simply incorrect and were a matter of perception,” he said.
Also stepping up in defense of the administration was Andy Robinson, vice president of Student Affairs.
“The choices that the college makes are legitimate issues, insulting people doesn’t further the debate,” he said.
Corrette’s letter, submitted to The Equinox, pointed out issues suggesting the college is “throwing away money” at branding itself with its new slogan, “Wisdom to make a difference,” and by spending unnecessary funds to design a new owl logo. The new logo came under fire in Corrette’s letter for overlooking KSC’s very own graphic design students.
A senior graphic design major who asked to remain anonymous said, “It’s dumb, we could have come up with a much better owl logo and for free.”
Keene State College just awarded a graphic design student $1,000 for designing a new ID card, which will be implemented next fall to all incoming freshmen.
Some students believe the same process could have been used to design our new owl logo, in which a campus-wide invitation to create a design was offered.
Despite the frailties of KSC’s issues, Robinson says he believes the main issues for the administration are keeping costs down while also keeping the college affordable for students and families.
“We’ve cut 5 percent off of our supply budget across campus, and we’ve limited and combined positions around campus. We’re actually short staffed,” he said.
Also under fire in Corrette’s letter was the administration’s handling of student interactions, citing that teachers are the first line of interaction with the students while the administrators practically do nothing.
Netzhammer responded by saying, “No we don’t have the day to day contact the same way the faculty does. Students have a voice in their education, and we are committed to being available to students when we are here.”
But with the recent resignations of both KSC president and provost, many have called into question the choices made by the higher-ups.
“Corrette’s letter said we can manage the college without a provost or a president, and that’s simply not true,” Robinson said.
Netzhammer said, “I’m proud to have been a leader of this community, and although there are issues of branding and many questions, the way we represent ourselves to the world is crucial.”
A critical choice viewed by many adjuncts as “deceitful” has been the lowering of adjunct instructors’ available classes to teach and lowering of the adjunct instructor budget, which will effectively lower the number of available positions and lower adjunct instructors’ pay.
Robinson said, “We can’t count on the adjunct professors as full-time employees. They do great for us, but we rely too heavily on them as a college, and the limiting of their budget is a big issue.”
“The choices that we’ve made are debatable but defensible,” Netzhammer said. “Keene State College is a tuition-driven institution. Ninety-five percent of our budget comes from tuition.”
The N.H. Legislature cut KSC’s budget in the fiscal year of 2011 by 48.4 percent, which limited state assistance to slightly under $5 million for the fiscal year of 2012.
Meanwhile, KSC tuition has gone up for in-state and out-of-state students, many of whom are simply asking where the money is being spent.
“The increased tuition was not equal to our reduced spending. Last year’s tuition increases only covered 20 percent of what was lost from our reduced state assistance,” Netzhammer said.
“Right now we’re in a tough stage of planning new initiatives while estimating our operating expenses for next year. Tuition is going up, but so are the operating expenses, while our state assistance will stay at only $5 million,” Netzhammer said.
A main issue for the campus is keeping costs down on nearly every budget in place. The largest budget of those is the budget for adjunct instructors, which is in the negotiation process, headed by Michael McCarthy, adjunct instructor of communications.
Netzhammer acknowledged, “With the eliminated positions, supply cuts, lowering of the adjunct budget, eliminated retirement budget, and the slowed tenure-track professors we expected the biggest backlash to be about the adjuncts.”
“These are our colleagues and an important part of the community but the institution has made a decision about certain things,” Netzhammer said.
With a lowered budget for next year’s operating expenses, KSC is raising both in-state and out-of-state tuition for students.
Netzhammer also said, “There is a huge pressure to cut lower enrolled courses,” a move which has infuriated both adjunct instructors and tenure-track professors as well. “We’ve cancelled over 100 courses a semester because of low enrollment,” Netzhammer said, a move that has cost some students a delayed graduation date because they cannot take their required course load.
“Right now we’re looking at certain models that will allow us to maintain a larger full time work force while covering our operating expenses for next year,” Netzhammer said.
Robinson added, “We need to push forward as a college and cut costs. The fact is we’re a well run institution that’s well managed financially.”.
Cam King can be contacted at
cking@keene-equinox.com.