午夜影院

April 14, 2022

Hello 午夜影院,鈥ㄢ��

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I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying springtime.

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Last night, the 午夜影院 Governing Board approved our budget proposal for the 2022-23 fiscal year that begins July 1. I want to thank the Governing Board members for their support and approval. I also want to thank our employees who devoted countless hours to helping us develop a responsible and thoughtful budget. It strategically aligns resources for optimizing 午夜影院鈥檚 ability to meet the needs of our students and community.

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With the Governing Board鈥檚 support, our approved budget will address the need for increased revenues, leverage significant one-time funding for important facilities and programmatic improvements, support much-deserved employee compensation increases, and invest in 午夜影院 2025 initiatives that will advance our Strategic Direction goals of Student Success, Community Success, and Organizational Excellence and Innovation.

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This budget, more specifically, is designed to:

• Increase our commitment to student success

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• Redefine workforce development and community success

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• Provide education that results in quality employment or transfer

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• Apply a more robust equity and inclusion lens to our work

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• And focus our resources 鈥� faculty and staff, facilities, IT, and funding 鈥� to serve our students and community

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During the pandemic, we鈥檝e experienced the largest enrollment declines in decades, like so many other community colleges across the country. It鈥檚 presented us with many challenges. Throughout these difficult times, however, we鈥檝e learned to be resilient, creative, flexible, and resourceful. That鈥檚 helped us to continue evolving as a leading-edge community college. And I鈥檓 very confident that our new budget will lead to greater successes in the year ahead and beyond.

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Our significant enrollment declines the last two years have led to reduced revenues of more than $3 million. Meanwhile, our expenses have been on the increase on a variety of fronts, including more investments in employee salaries and increased contributions to the employee retirement fund. Our expenses are currently outpacing our revenues.

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One of the few options we have for increasing revenue is to increase tuition. And our tuition increases have not kept up with inflation for a number of years. To help stabilize our revenue, the Governing Board approved a tuition increase from our current rate of $57 per credit hour to $63 per credit hour. For an in-state student taking 15 credit hours, including fees, the increase is $108 per term beginning with the Fall Term. This increase will not impact that vast majority of our students due to the state鈥檚 expansion of the Opportunity and Lottery scholarships, which will cover virtually all tuition and fees for most of our students. For the small percentage of students who don鈥檛 qualify, the 午夜影院 Foundation will be able to provide help.

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午夜影院 will remain one of the best higher education values in the state and region after the increase. In the 2021-22 academic year, 午夜影院鈥檚 tuition was near half of the average tuition among 午夜影院鈥檚 official community college peers in the region ($57 per credit hour at 午夜影院 vs. $108 per credit hour average among peers). 午夜影院鈥檚 tuition rate is 2 percent higher than the average for our community college peers in New Mexico.

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The Governing Board also approved the Employee Compensation Plan, which aligns with salary increases that were supported and partially funded by the State of New Mexico. Employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) will receive a 4 percent salary increase on July 1. The Board approved funding to provide an average 4 percent salary increase for all employees. Compensation increases for employees covered by CBAs will be determined through the official negotiation process.

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I want to thank the Governing Board for their great appreciation of our outstanding faculty and staff, and for continuing to support our employees with compensation increases, which also included the state-supported 3 percent increase that went into effect for non-union employees April 1. Funding for the 3 percent compensation increase is earmarked for union employees as well 鈥� it鈥檚 currently going through the negotiation process.

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The State of New Mexico provides 55 percent of the funding to cover salary increases and 午夜影院 covers the remaining 45 percent.

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I want to congratulate everybody on these well-earned salary increases. I hope they bring some financial relief and some added prosperity to you and your families.

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Our new budget will support a variety of other efforts that will help position us to advance our Strategic Plan goals. Here are a few highlights of what the new budget will be investing in:

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• Increased commitment to Student Success by investing in a new advisement model; easier enrollment process; improved student communications and website; and expanding social supports like the Food Pantry and mental health services

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• Increased commitment to job placement services for students and graduates; embedding work-based learning experiences in all programs; and greater engagement with employers on advisory committees and program review

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• More non-credit upskilling and programming, including through 午夜影院鈥檚 involvement in Unmudl and training partnerships with businesses such as Amazon and Intel

• Increased commitment to the trades that will launch a decade of investment in trades programming and facilities

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• Expanded commitment to Brightspace online learning management system and Attend Anywhere class offerings

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• Launching the new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office on July 1 to focus on advancing equity and inclusion efforts for students and employees

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• Hybrid work efforts that value the individual, each other, and our 午夜影院 culture

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• IT and facilities efforts, such as new trades facilities, new student services facility, space re-allocations to support hybrid workplace and reorganizations, Salesforce enhancements to support student and community engagement

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• Continuing commitment to the Collaborative for Higher Education Shared Services (CHESS) that will modernize our technology platforms to improve the student experience and create more efficient processes for the College鈥檚 administrative functions

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• Invest in the professional development of our faculty and staff to help meet evolving student and community expectations

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• Creation of a new School of Nursing and Patient Support to increase the pipeline of nurses and patient care professionals for our state

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• Ongoing commitment to the College-wide Integrated Program Review (CIPR) process, an inclusive and data-rich process to guide credit and non-credit programming decisions

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These are a sampling of investments that will help move us forward in our efforts to remain the leading-edge community college we need to be in this fast-paced world of higher education and workforce training. But the most important investment we make is in our faculty and staff. You are 午夜影院鈥檚 most valued resource because you bring these efforts to life. Your passion for helping our students enroll, persist, learn, grow, graduate, and gain access to life-changing careers inspires me every day. So does your commitment for helping 午夜影院 maximize its contributions to economic development, a more prosperous and healthy central New Mexico community, and a better quality of life for all.

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Thank you for everything you do to help 午夜影院 be as successful as possible in supporting our students and our vision of 鈥淐hanging Lives, Building Community.鈥�

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Looking forward to all of us working together to achieve great things in the year ahead.

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Sincerely,

Tracy

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Tracy听Hartzler

President

午夜影院 New Mexico Community College