On Friday, April 11, Keene State College President Melinda Treadwell delivered the State of the College address in the Alumni Recital Hall at the Redfern Arts Center.
“There’s ambiguity, there’s uncertainty, and I will share with you a lot of things that I believe to be the case on where we’ll end on this process as we go forward,” said Treadwell. “I think we continue to commit in a way that our students feel, see, and share a sense of belonging, a sense of support, a sense of commitment to them and their success.”
Treadwell then spoke about the plan for the college in the coming years, hoping to see success with student morale and student enrollment continuing to improve, with strategies like introducing the esports and varsity ice hockey teams, as the college has seen its highest student enrollment and retention rate since 2016, according to Treadwell.
She also discussed Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s proposed budget, which included an eight percent budget cut for the University System of New Hampshire (USNH), which for Keene State College is roughly a loss of $567,000. The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a 30 percent budget cut to USNH in a floor vote on April 10 for the state budget. The 30 percent budget cut would mean a loss of approximately $4.5 million for Keene State College.
“This is the first step,” she said. “This is not where we will end.”
Between now and June 12, when the N.H. House and Senate will negotiate budget proposals, the Senate needs to come up with its own budget and pass it to the House, which should happen by approximately June 5 or 6. Treadwell noted that as it stands, the House budget is draconian.
“We will be advocating on our behalf,” said Treadwell. “We will be working with the House and the Senate… I am confident, as our history has shown us, we will land somewhere between the governor’s budget and the House budget … but we won’t know where that will be until late June. The state has to invest in higher ed. Period,” she added.
Director of the Mason Library Celia Rabinowitz stated, “I appreciated President Treadwell’s honesty and clarity about where things stand today, how the state budget process will proceed and the kinds of challenges we will face, while also reminding us that our current enrollments and successful retention rates are pieces of a larger picture that give us reason to remain hopeful. It is certainly difficult to provide a lot of clarity or even specific answers to many questions when there is still a lot that is unknown.”
Treadwell assured students and the community alike that even if the budget cuts are higher than anticipated, the tuition increase of 2.5 percent announced in March will not grow.
“The board authorized us a ceiling of tuition increase,” she said. “The worst challenge would be to make it harder for students to access the education at Keene State … Driving up our price to maintain our operations is not an option.”
Treadwell said the college is looking into vacant faculty position options as part of saving costs.
“We will try to determine if we can make some strategic opportunities to not fill some of those positions. People are not harmed, but resources are saved,” said Treadwell.
The college is also looking into discretionary spending on goods and services, to “attend to those in a way that helps us make up whatever the state shortfall will be for us,” said Treadwell.
In her final remarks, Treadwell said the House passed another bill, which also contains anti-DEI language that would “reduce or eliminate state funding to public educational enterprises who are engaged in what would be prohibited diversity, equity and inclusion work,” along with the budget, which is going through continued appeals.
Treadwell said this will not affect the college, adding this is the strangest experience she has ever had professionally. The college cannot let “the headwinds on the outside distract us from the work we are doing here,” said Treadwell. She added that the college cannot fail its main goal to support the students.
“I’m not worried about the future for this college. We have to exist, the state needs us,” said Treadwell. “I’m worried about holding our identity, existing in a very challenging world. That’s the work we are doing every day.”
Dominic Rubio can be contacted at
drubio@kscequinox.com
