International Students Trip to Salt Lake City

I took 20 Asian students, who are away from their families over the Christmas holiday, to Salt Lake last Tuesday. We had a great day shopping, eating dim sum, and looking at the lights on Temple Square. The international students are among my favorite things about Snow College.

After 15 Months of Budget Cuts We Are More Efficient But We Have Not Compromised Our Ultimate Inefficiency.

The last final exams were administered Friday and most of the students have now gone home for the Christmas Break. Some of the career and technical education programs at our Richfield campus continue for a bit longer. But things are becoming quiet on our two campuses--if only for a few weeks

2009 has been a very long year full of massive state budget cuts (17% down), lay-offs (12% of all employees-mostly staff positions), and record enrollment increases (24% up). Our intent in working through our state budget reduction was to focus everything we had on our core values, impact the least number of students possible, and prepare for institutional and student growth. We have spent more hours than I would want to recount in careful, deliberative, data driven, strategic planning. Despite the institutional and personal pain shared by many over the past 15 months we have become a more efficient and focused college prepared for the challenges we face in the next decade.

Although we are more efficient we have not compromised our ultimate inefficiency--small classes taught by real professors. We have no graduate student instructors like the universities, we have no large auditorium classes, we still have relatively few adjuncts faculty members, and most of our adjuncts help us--not to save money--but to be more responsive to particular student needs. Freshman and Sophomore opportunities at Snow College are better than anywhere else in the Intermountain West.

Few of our students know of our difficulties this year. To the casual observer it looks like everything is moving along better than even in the best of years. We just dedicated our new Heritage Plaza; our new, beautiful Karen H. Huntsman Library is on schedule for completion this summer; we are planning for significant expansion this year in our nursing program; will are advertising for our first full-time general education instructor in Richfield; we are hiring several replacement and new faculty members to relieve stress in core general education courses; and we are proposing our first, narrow focused four-year degree program, in music education.

Yesterday Governor Gary Herbert, by executive order, further reduced the budgets of all colleges and universities in Utah by 3%. We are halfway through the current budget year. The actual impact of this 3% cut, halfway through the budget year, is 6% on the remaining half. And when approximately 80% of our funds are spent on personnel this could have been one more devastating announcement. I don't know what other institutions will do to meet this new cut. But implementing the new reduction at Snow College was simple. From the first announcement of budget cuts 15 months ago we have been ahead of the curve. The first cut of 4% was announced in October 2008. We knew it would grow deeper so we started with an 8% cut and with each successive announcement we have remained ahead the economic downturn. I called the college's chief financial officer, Marvin Dodge, from Salt Lake City yesterday after the Governor's announcement, and within a few minutes we had resolved the new cut without any additional layoffs or reduction in course sections. We were able to do it because we anticipated this possibility and were prepared for it.

I don't want to suggest our preparation for and implementation of these cuts, including yesterday's executive order, has come without significant pain. Because it clearly has. I don't think anything illustrates this point more than to say I have had to layoff six members of my own LDS ward, including my next door neighbor and one of my vice presidents. Snow College's campuses are in two small towns and we have felt the cuts more personally than any other institution.

Governor Herbert's proposed budget for fiscal year 2010-11 lights our first real ray of hope. I fully support his proposal. It will restore the 3% cut ordered yesterday and will replace one-time federal ARRA funding. We are doing well but cannot continue indefinitely. We have several people working full and part-time at Snow College without pay this year to help us get through. For example, Dave and Pat Willmore rented a small, student apartment in Ephraim and travel back and forth from their comfortable home in American Fork, all at their own expense, to cover the workload of other employees who were let go as a result of the budget cuts. Ralph Brenchley retired a year ago and has continued teaching full-time without pay. Other employees have taken on extra assignments and classes without pay to get us through this crisis.

Institutions, like people, come out out of significant challenges weaker or stronger. We are coming out of this challenge stronger. And, I hope, with a deeper appreciation and respect for the service of so many wonderful people at our college.

I know this college president has a new found respect and appreciate for the people of Snow College. And a burning optimism in our future.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

Stop by the SVC at the Snow College Richfield campus to see Christmas Tree Lane! Snow College departments and various community and business groups have come together to decorate about 50 Christmas Trees. It is really fun. Many of the trees will be taken down soon. But the College trees will remain up through the season--and they are delightful.