Dear Colleagues,
It has now been more than six weeks since we were together on campus. This pandemic has upended all of our lives, and we know some of you have experienced its impact in heartbreaking ways. The resilience, ingenuity, and compassion with which our community has confronted this crisis is both humbling and inspiring, and is a testament to your deep commitment to CCA’s academic mission, our students, and one another.
The announcement this week that our area will remain under a shelter-in-place order at least until the end of May, as well as Governor Newsom’s phased, months-long plan for reopening, underscore the gravity and uncertainty of the situation we face. Within this uncertain climate, we are seeking to make the best possible decisions—financially, socially, and ethically—to protect the health, safety, and well-being of our community; advance our mission; secure the college’s future; and support our students, faculty, and staff.
It is in this spirit that we write today to share with you more information on steps the college is considering to address the extraordinary financial challenges we face as we look toward a summer with no in-person classes or programs and prepare for the near certainty of a decline in enrollment for the year ahead. We as a college have many difficult decisions to make in the coming days, weeks, and months.
The magnitude of the disruption this pandemic presents is unlike any in CCA’s 113-year history, and is amplified by the uncertainty surrounding the timeframe and criteria for a safe return to in-person interaction. We are confident that CCA will not only survive this crisis, but will do so with our commitment to making, collaboration, community engagement, and everything that makes us who we are intact. We recognize, however, that this will require many hard choices and significant sacrifices.
Impacts of summer program reductions
The cancelation of most summer programs resulted in approximately $3 million in lost revenue from tuition and fees and housing, as well as eliminating work that some employees would have done over the next few months. The ongoing campus closure will further reduce the work available for some other employees during this period. In response to similar situations, many colleges and universities across the country have already implemented or announced furloughs and fringe-benefit reductions. Regrettably, we anticipate such measures will soon be necessary at CCA as well.
CCA will continue to pay all regular staff employees at current levels through May 15, when we complete our spring semester.
As we move forward, we will try to minimize the number and duration of furloughs. We have already taken several steps to reduce expenses, including:
Ending of many temporary employee assignments
Implementation of a hiring freeze
Salary reductions of 25% and 10%, respectively, for the president and senior vice presidents
Suspension of all nonessential travel
Receipt of funding through the federal Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund
It is clear that additional steps are necessary, however. Further efforts currently under consideration to reduce expenses and minimize furloughs include:
Temporarily suspending the college’s 5% discretionary contribution to CCA’s 403(b) employee retirement plan
Redeploying some staff members in affected positions to different positions where there is an immediate need in lieu of furloughs
Extending the current hiring freeze into the coming fiscal year
Forgoing or deferring salary increases
Extending graduated salary reductions to senior administrators beyond those previously announced
Applying to the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), a federal program designed to help organizations keep their workforces employed (CCA’s eligibility is uncertain)
We continue to look for additional savings across all of our operations, and as we consider the measures above, we are working in consultation with CCA’s academic and administrative leaders, our Board of Trustees, and representatives from our two distinct SEIU collective bargaining units.
Several of these measures under consideration will be discussed this week in negotiations with our SEIU staff union representatives. Negotiations have continued throughout this disruption, and we are pleased to report that this week, the two teams reached final agreement on a shared letter of understanding outlining policies related to health and safety, worker’s comp, medical leave, health benefits, reimbursements, and sick leave related to COVID–19. We thank the representatives on both negotiating teams for their diligent and thoughtful work.
Looking ahead to fall
We will have a fall semester. Our goal is for it to be as on-time and in-person as the situation—and the health and safety of our students and employees—allows.
Academic Affairs staff are modeling a number of scenarios for delivering instruction this fall, each with the goal of coming together safely to provide our students with a successful, robust CCA experience. These possibilities range from a best-case scenario in which classes, programs, and studios operate in a near-normal way with enhanced cleaning and physical-distancing protocols, to hybrid approaches involving the continuation of some level of remote learning, adjusted semester dates, accommodations for incoming students who may still face travel restrictions, and/or some combination of remote and in-person instruction. While we are building out a variety of options and are highly optimistic that we’ll be back together in our classrooms and studios this fall, it’s still too early to tell which scenario will be feasible.
It is also too early to know the severity of the pandemic’s impact on enrollment for the coming fall and spring semesters, although colleges and universities across the country are forecasting significant declines in both new and continuing students. We are heartened by the strong interest in CCA we’re seeing from prospective students, and our Admissions team is working diligently to support them and their families during this uncertain period.
As we’ve shared previously, our initial projection of COVID–19’s financial impact on the college involves a tuition and housing revenue shortfall of approximately $9 million for the coming year. This is based on the anticipated decline in enrollment and unforeseen costs associated with remote curriculum delivery, physical distancing measures, additional financial support for students, and enhanced cleaning. Until we understand the actual impact of the pandemic on fall enrollment, this remains only an estimate.
As we have new information to share, we will do so in a timely and transparent way. In the meantime, please continue to look to the COVID–19 Portal page for information. CCA’s Communications office has also set up a designated email address, questions@cca.edu, where you may submit questions, which will be answered as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Human Resources questions may be directed to hr@cca.edu. And we have scheduled a series of regular all-faculty and all-staff Zoom meetings to provide a forum for questions and conversation.
We are all navigating this difficult situation together, in our personal, professional, and creative lives, and we thank you once again for the resilience, resourcefulness, and kindness with which you are supporting our students and one another on this unwelcome journey.
Sincerely,
Stephen Beal
President
Tammy Rae Carland
Provost