PCC Dealing With Budget Worries

WINTER HAVEN | You won't see students lined up for registration at Polk Community College on Monday, but appearances can be deceiving.

Online PASSPORT registration for PCC's fall term starts at 8:30 a.m. that day. More than half of PCC students register through the Internet system known as PASSPORT, which stands for Personal Access to Student Services Polk Online Registration Tool.

In-person registration starts Friday for traditional students who can't or choose not to use the online method. Students dually enrolled in high school and college start registering in person July 21. Fall classes begin Aug. 18.

PCC officials and employees will be watching the registration process with more-than-usual interest.

The community college's board of trustees approved the skeletal structure of a budget last month, one written on the basis of enrollment staying fairly flat.

The college expects enrollment growth, but can't afford to count on it until the actual figures are in.

Whether additional enrollment brings in extra cash will help determine how far PCC can go in implementing changes recommended to make its salaries more competitive in the marketplace. Personnel costs are 69.1 percent of PCC's 2008-2009 budget.

"We want a solid picture of enrollment and revenue before making a decision on raises," said Peter Elliott, vice president and chief financial officer.

"Our key resource is our faculty," Elliott said. "People from outside Florida are looking at our faculty as well."

Enrollment is one of two major factors determining what the year holds for PCC. The other is what further action state lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist take.

One day after Crist signed the state budget, he announced a plan to "hold back" 4 percent of money budgeted for state agencies, President Eileen Holden said. That affects the Department of Education, through which PCC is funded.

"We're not counting on that 4 percent getting restored," Holden said. "I think we should plan on it being a cut and hold our breath there isn't another one."

"We're surviving is what we're doing and waiting every day for an e-mail saying there's another holdback."

If that held-back money becomes a funding cut, which happened to colleges in 2007-2008, PCC would lose about $750,000, Elliott said.

PCC has budgeted about the same amount in revenue in 2008-2009 as the college collected in 2007-2008, accommodating a 6 percent fee increase that takes effect for the fall term.

The bad news, Elliott said, is that the amount it collected in 2007-2008 reflected funding cuts imposed by the state in October 2007 and March of this year.

"We're down significantly from where we were at this time last year."

He and Holden indicated fall registration will be held earlier next year to allow for better planning.

In addition to considering salary adjustments to remain competitive, PCC officials also are looking at the need for more full-time faculty.

"We've been building our enrollment growth on adjunct faculty," Holden said. "As a long-term strategy, that's not a good one."

How do these issues affect students?

Maintaining good instructors is vital to the education they receive.

Another factor concerns PCC's ability to make classes available when students want them. High demand in some areas means that doesn't always occur.

"It happened this summer," Holden said. "Classes closed out. We added as many classes, as much as we could, then told students to enroll for the fall."

[ Robin Williams Adams can be reached at robin.adams@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Read her blog at robinsrx.theledger.com. ]