This Utah college is cutting more from its budget than the Legislature required. Why?

One college in the state has decided to go beyond what’s required and slash more from its budget than Utah lawmakers have demanded.

Salt Lake Community College is supposed to come up with $5.2 million in reductions under the Legislature’s plan to reduce higher education spending overall by about $60.5 million.

The school announced in a Thursday email to faculty and staff, though, that it found an extra $581,620 that it could trim for a total of $5.8 million.

The college described the additional money as “surplus identified through reductions” and said that while it surpasses HB265’s requirements, it aligns with the school’s “Vision Matrix” — what SLCC calls its strategic plan.

Initially, the school last week said it would push to cut $360,000 more than what’s required, but that number jumped even higher in the updated proposal Thursday.

“In reviewing the language of HB265, SLCC found that, if applied thoughtfully, the bill could further the college’s efforts to fulfill its mission,” school President Greg Peterson wrote last week in the email shared with The Salt Lake Tribune.

SLCC’s strategic plan aims to nearly double its enrollment up to 50,000 students by 2027. It was at 27,400 this fall, data shows. The college also wants to increase degree completion to 50% in two years; it’s at 33% now.

And SLCC is pushing to increase the median earnings of its graduates by $5,000 in the same time frame. At this point, students with a SLCC degree are making about $48,000 annually, according to federal numbers.

Peterson said by looking into what the school could cut and consolidate, it found more areas to save and, hopefully, earn back money from the state to reinvest toward meeting those goals.

The systemwide budget cuts have been pushed by state leaders who say they want to see more efficiency and less “administrative bloat” in the state’s eight public colleges and universities.

The demand under HB265 is that schools reduce majors or programs that have few graduates and lead to lower paying jobs. Lawmakers laid out a way for schools to eventually get the money back — if they show that the funding will be reinvested in high-wage degrees that lead to jobs the state needs.

That task is slightly harder for the state’s two community colleges — SLCC and Snow College — which largely offer certificates and more general associate degrees, meaning they have fewer academic programs in specific fields to cut. Their goal is mostly to graduate students with a two-year degree.

Snow College similarly announced its plans this month, aiming to hit the $1.7 million it’s required to cut. As the smallest public college in the state, with about 5,600 students, President Stacee McIff said the process has been “stressful.”

“The dollar amount was intimidating,” McIff told the college’s board of trustees while presenting on May 5.

At SLCC, Peterson has previously expressed concern about the brief window schools have had to draft their plans. The first version of their proposals was due to the Utah Board of Higher Education this month, with a formal presentation to follow in June. Final approval from the Legislature will come in August and September.

Here’s a breakdown of what the two colleges are expecting to do.

SLCC cuts positions, programs

Salt Lake Community College has proposed eliminating 50 positions. Of those, 15 are already vacant. The rest, according to Peterson’s email, will come through layoffs and retirements.

Overall, five are administrative positions.

Down the line, the president hopes to add nine new faculty positions with reinvestment funds; the people losing their jobs can apply for those. Most of the people impacted should have been informed by last week.

In his email, Peterson said he appreciates the school’s effort to treat “each impacted employee with respect and care.”

“While this has been a somewhat difficult journey, I am proud that our process has been collaborative, measured and compassionate while keeping in mind the needs of our students,” he wrote.

Peterson presented the overall plan to SLCC’s board of trustees during a closed session Wednesday. The school cited Utah law that allows meetings to be closed while discussing personnel issues.

The board voted to approve the plan, with minor changes, after that private discussion, the school said in an email sent campuswide Thursday.

The proposal also includes cutting 237 courses “that are not directly connected to the requirements of an instructional program,” Peterson said.

And SLCC is reducing certificate and degree offerings down from 195 to 147. That reduction of 48 programs includes 12 that are being consolidated.

The program cuts include associate degrees with a focus in anthropology, history, philosophy and religious studies, sociology, writing studies, accounting, finance, marketing, computer science information systems, fashion merchandising, animation and graphic design.

The school says those have “low enrollment and low completion rates.”

“As a reminder, SLCC does regularly review and modify its academic programs to provide the best learning and post-completion outcomes for our students, and the proposed reinvestment plan reflects similar work,” Peterson said.

The School of Arts, Communication and Media will be entirely eliminated. Its programs will be folded into other schools and departments.

The college’s Grand Theater will remain in operation, even without the art school. But SLCC is permanently closing its long-standing Community Writing Center.

The school said in its message Thursday that it hopes to reinvest money in its technical programs through its Salt Lake Technical College — something the Legislature has pushed — as well as associate degrees in business and health sciences.

Snow College turns to voluntary resignations

McIff said she hopes that the cuts, in the long run, will make Snow operate more efficiently.

The school will release its full plan to faculty after it gets initial approval from the Utah Board of Higher Education, she said.

At this point, the bulk of the money will come through having fewer faculty and staff — but all of the reductions are coming through voluntary retirements, McIff said.

“We have come up with a plan that does not force anyone to leave,” she told the school’s trustees.

There are 25 employees at the college who have opted for voluntary retirement. A few of those positions will need to be filled, but not all of them, added Tim Tingey, the vice president for finance and administrative services. And new hires, he said, tend to start in a lower pay bracket, saving money.

The staff who are leaving will be paid out a severance based on their years of service and salary rate, with a cap that the school did not disclose.

The school will eliminate the position of vice president for external affairs. And it will restructure its athletic director position to include more responsibilities.

Snow College is also discontinuing a handful of “redundant degrees and certificates,” McIff said, but the school has not yet said what is on that list.