Rock Valley College announced Friday that it will recommend to the College’s Board of Trustees to approve a reduction in force of certain non-tenured and tenured faculty members to be effective for fall 2017.
According to a news release, the College is required under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Faculty Association and the Illinois Public Community College Act to give notice to each individual faculty member of the Board’s action no later than 60 days before the end of the semester. It says the recommendation must be taken to the Board for action before the end of February to allow the 60 day time frame to be met.
The College says it has made “substantial reductions to its non-instructional services, including implementing a reduction in force in December 2015 of 30 non-instructional employees and eliminating 14 non-instructional vacant positions at that same time.”
The College has also saved $833,000 on non-instructional employee salaries for positions that are either on hold or were not funded in FY17. Additionally, the College reduced FY17 non-salary items and expense budgets by approximately $1.1 million compared to FY16.
Despite these reductions, the College says it is still facing a $1.6 million deficit for FY17 and the outlook for FY18 is even more challenging due in large part to the absence of state funding due to the Illinois budget crisis. The College has traditionally received approximately $6.5 million from the state for operating costs, which primarily covers salaries, benefits, and materials, and are separate from capital costs. The College has lost $9.4 million in state funding for its operations since 2016.
In addition to the lack of state funding, the College has also seen a decrease in its Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) for the RVC tax base that has resulted in a $4.2 million decrease in revenue to the College from 2007 to 2015.
The College has also experienced a decline in enrollment in recent years, losing approximately 5,000 students (-28%) and approximately 32,000 credit hours sold (-16%) since 2010.
The recommendation, with names a list of names of affected faculty members, will be taken to the Board of Trustees at its meeting on Feb. 28, 2017.