Subject: [Faculty-l] Important Updates from the President and Provost
From: Presidents Office <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:32:26 -0700
List-Id: All-Faculty mailing list <faculty-l.lists.cca.edu>

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
<https://portal.cca.edu/thriving/health-wellness/novel-coronavirus-covid19/>
for information. CCA’s Communications office has also set up a designated
email address, [email-masked], where you may submit questions, which
will be answered as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Human Resources
questions may be directed to [email-masked]. 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
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