Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Administrative & Operational Reductions

• Limit Travel: Restrict non-essential travel, prioritizing virtual meetings for activities outside of accreditation or critical training.
• Optimize Auxiliary Services: Assess auxiliary services to identify potential downsizing or outsourcing where it’s cost-effective.
• Control Purchasing Card (PCard) Use: Implement tighter controls, lower limits, and increased monitoring of PCard spending.
• Maximize Facility Use: Consolidate or repurpose underutilized spaces, improve scheduling efficiency, and assess potential for leasing underused assets.
• Reduce Contracted Services: Negotiate better terms, prioritize in-house services when more cost-effective, and streamline contracts to remove redundancies.
• Enhance Revenue: Explore new revenue streams, such as facility rentals and partnerships, leasing space, and increase efforts to attract and retain students.
• Streamline Supplies Spending: Minimize material costs through inventory optimization, digital alternatives, and department resource-sharing.
• Prioritize Sponsorships & Memberships: Focus only on those that align with strategic goals and measurable outcomes, exploring alternatives as needed.
• Refine Contract Management: Evaluate and reduce contracts to eliminate redundancy and improve value.
• Reduce Base Budgets: Identify and eliminate non-critical spending, especially in units operating at a deficit.
• Restructure Administration: Consolidate administrative services to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency across the college.

Personnel Changes

• Limit Overtime and Temp Staffing: Apply stricter controls on overtime and temporary staffing. Cross-train employees to cover critical tasks during peak times.
• Reduce Professional Development: Temporarily scale back on professional development funding, focusing on essential, low-cost training options during budget constraints.
• Utilize Vacancy Savings: Freeze hiring for non-essential roles and reallocate workloads among existing staff to maintain necessary functions.
• Eliminate Redundant Positions: Identify and permanently eliminate positions that are non-essential or redundant, streamlining the organizational structure where possible.
• Implement Furloughs: Use temporary furloughs (unpaid leave) for managers, confidential, and executive employees to reduce payroll expenses without permanent job losses.
• Conduct Strategic Layoffs: As a last resort, conduct layoffs based on strategic priorities, offering severance and outplacement support to affected employees.

Review of Academic Programs & Disciplines

Understanding that significant program reductions (i.e., reductions, mergers, redesigns) take time to implement, this process will be enacted in this FY25 to result in savings in the remaining year of the biennium (FY26) and for the 2027-2029 biennium. The process and timeline we will use to review program and discipline fiscal sustainability to identify cost savings is outlined in the Program/Discipline Fiscal Sustainability Review Process webpage.

Implementing Strategic Enrollment Management

As PCC makes difficult financial decisions, our Strategic Enrollment Plan will ensure that budget reductions do not undermine efforts to stabilize and grow enrollment. We are aiming for a 3% minimum enrollment growth in all of our financial projections.

Key priorities for Strategic Enrollment Management include:

• Simplifying and streamlining student processes, making it easier for students to enroll, navigate, and complete their programs.
• Identifying the appropriate scale for facilities, staffing, and program offerings will allow PCC to meet enrollment demand without overextending resources.
• Prioritizing high-demand programs that align with labor market needs, ensuring that the college invests in courses and credentials that draw students and support their career goals.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Enrollment Metrics: Headcount, credits registered, and completion times will be tracked closely by demographics, campus, and program to evaluate enrollment resilience amid budget reductions.
• Retention and Completion Rates: Monitoring retention and completion rates helps ensure that budget adjustments are not impacting student success. Increased focus on these metrics supports equity goals by highlighting any emerging gaps.
• Financial Aid and Accessibility: Metrics related to financial aid applications and Title IV aid recipients will ensure that cost adjustments do not disproportionately impact students who rely on financial support, maintaining accessibility as a core value.

Affordability Initiatives

• Implementing cost-saving measures or initiatives to reduce financial barriers for students, such as textbook affordability programs or open educational resources (OER).
• Align strategies in partnership with the PCC Foundation’s Strategic Plan in order to increase the number of flexible scholarships and emergency funding dedicated to students.
• Tuition and Fees Affordability: Prioritize initiatives aimed at keeping tuition and fees affordable for students while ensuring financial sustainability for the college. Partner with the PCC Foundation to leverage additional funding for scholarships and emergency grants that help reduce out-of-pocket costs for students, thereby enhancing access and retention.
• Student Activity Fee: Support the enhancement and sustainability of a SAF contingency fund, providing a stronger opportunity to maintain current service levels in key student support areas as determined by the Associated Students of PCC (ASPCC).

Future Growth and Expansion Opportunities

• Investments in existing and new programs and reallocations should help accomplish the College’s mission and strategic priorities and goals.
• The Integrated Budget and Planning Council (IBPC) and Strategic Enrollment Management Council (SEMC) will be key in assessing program recommendations using identified metrics to monitor growth, retention, sustainability and return on investment.
• Special consideration should be given to requests for budget expansion, where the expansion generates additional revenue to support strategic priorities and goals.
• Expenditures for new and/or expanded programs and activities should be based on full and realistic budget projections.
• Enrollment increases should be analyzed as a component of overall resources and the Student Enrollment Management Council’s projected targets.
• Tuition and fee strategies should consider the practice of state and peer institutions, including all 17 Oregon Community Colleges.
• Prioritizing a student-centered approach in all future growth and expansion opportunities to ensure that the needs and experiences of students are at the forefront of decision-making processes is essential.
• Considerations will be made for:
  • Programs/credentials leading to high demand, living wage fields that are economic drivers for Oregon (especially those that are short-term and stackable or microcredentials).
  • Contract and continuing education for community and industry partners.