Subject: [All Staff] Year-end update from the president and senior leadership team
From: Presidents Office <[email-masked]>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 14:40:34 -0800
List-Id: <allstaff.cca.edu>

Dear CCA Community,

As this long, strange, and challenging year draws to a close and the
college begins a well-deserved winter break, we are writing to share
updates on several key topics that together offer a snapshot of the state
of the college. There is some sobering news as we continue to face
substantial challenges, but there is also light on the horizon.

While this has been a year of tremendous uncertainty and sacrifice, CCA
entered this period from a place of stability built over years of prudent
planning and operation. This stable foundation, combined with decisive
actions early in the pandemic, has enabled us to navigate the disruption
while keeping our curriculum, academic experience, and culture true to our
values.

It is a precarious time for higher education, particularly for small,
private colleges. Some will not survive. CCA will. We will turn the page on
2020 and continue to deliver an education in accordance with our mission
and vision well into the future.

We hope you find the updates below helpful and informative. We are grateful
for the extraordinary work you’ve done and support you’ve shown one another
throughout this difficult year. As we enter this holiday season, you remind
us daily that our CCA community is what will bring us through this crisis.

Finally, we invite you to spend some time admiring the work of our newest
CCA graduates on the Fall 2020 Showcase
<https://www.cca.edu/exhibitions/fall-2020-showcase/>. There couldn’t be a
better testament to the perseverance, resilience, and talent of our
students than this profound example of what they have accomplished in the
face of unimaginable challenges.

Warm regards and best wishes for a happy, healthy, and productive new year,

Steve Beal, president

and the CCA senior leadership team

------------------------------

Enrollment

We knew this pandemic year, with teaching and learning happening remotely,
would result in a decline in enrollment. Fall enrollment fell within our
projected range—down 230 students (about 12%) from the previous year. (For
context, our closest peer institutions saw enrollment declines ranging from
about 10% to 25%.) Our early decision to shift to a remote fall semester
gave students and their families, as well as faculty and staff, more time
to prepare. Our highly personalized approach to working with students to
address their needs in this new environment also helped keep enrollment
from declining further.

For spring 2021, here’s where enrollment stands currently:

   -

   1,075 enrolled undergraduates (down 271 from spring 2020)
   -

   321 enrolled graduate students (down 56 from spring 2020)
   -

   Anticipated spring 2021 enrollment is about 1,400 students—approximately
   300 fewer (20%) than last spring.
   -

   50 new undergraduate students starting in spring (slightly more than our
   typical entering class for spring; these students have gone through the
   entire admission and enrollment process during the pandemic)

New applications for fall are promising, and we sent out a record number of
first-year early-action admissions decisions this month. We also expect
many students who postponed their admission or took a leave during the
pandemic to return as soon as we are back in person, and we look forward to
welcoming a full—and highly qualified—cohort in fall 2021.

Budget and financial management

In September, CCA’s Board of Trustees approved a budget dependent on the
use of reserves for the current fiscal year (July 1, 2020–June 30, 2021).
This budget included $12 million (15%) in expense savings we were able to
realize through shared sacrifices across the college, including measures
such as furloughs, a limited number of layoffs, suspension of the employer
contribution for the retirement plan, no regular salary increases, and
salary reductions at the cabinet level. Even with these cost-saving
efforts, however, for the first time in more than twenty years, the Board
approved a $5.6-million-deficit budget. The budget was based on
anticipations of a hybrid spring 2021 semester with approximately 300
students living in Founders Hall.

Last week, we presented the Finance-Audit Committee of the Board with an
update on financial expectations for the current fiscal year that reflect
the impact of the pandemic’s winter surge, which has delayed our planned
return to hybrid instruction and lowered the demand for campus housing.
With the revised spring projections, we now forecast the shortfall for the
year, despite the expense-saving measures we’ve implemented, to be $8.2
million.

Fortunately, the college has built limited reserves through years of
careful fiscal management. The Board has agreed to the temporary use of
some of these reserves to limit further reductions, enabling us to maintain
the quality of our students’ academic experience and preserve the college’s
ability to return quickly to a full, on-campus program as soon as it is
safe to do so.

To mitigate this deficit and replenish reserves, President Beal and the
Board of Trustees are engaged in a focused fundraising effort that has
already addressed nearly a quarter of the shortfall. Additionally, the San
Francisco Mayor’s Office has granted an emergency order to allow rooms in
the Panoramic—which CCA leases but does not currently need—to be offered to
non-students. With CCA’s support, the building’s owner is working with
nonprofits and agencies to make these rooms available as transitional
housing, providing some financial relief to CCA and preventing these rooms
from sitting empty in the midst of a housing crisis.

Spring planning

As we’ve seen throughout the past 10 months, this virus is unpredictable
and requires plans that are flexible and responsive. We are fortunate to
have a creative, collaborative community, and our staff and faculty have
worked tirelessly to adapt to the changing circumstances and support our
students. We will continue to communicate quickly and thoroughly as the
spring semester approaches, and beyond as circumstances evolve.

Academic schedule

Building on what we learned from students and faculty about their
experience this fall, and with input from the deans, program chairs and
academic staff have done outstanding work to create a spring 2021 course
schedule and delivery model that will be successful.

   -

   The course schedule has been adjusted to accommodate our global student
   body.
   -

   The spring semester will start one week later than originally planned—on
   Monday, January 25, 2021. Classes will end as originally planned on May 9,
   2021.
   -

   We will not have a spring break in order to maintain required health and
   safety guidelines around quarantining. If we were to schedule a spring
   break, it would add extra weeks to the semester because of quarantine and
   testing requirements.
   -

   We are committed to getting back to in-person and on-campus instruction
   as soon as it is safe, and at that time we will return to a regular course
   schedule.

Facilities

We are readying facilities, including tented space on the Backlot, to
support a mix of in-person, hybrid classes and individual studio makers’
spaces as soon as state and local health department orders allow.

Return to Campus (Prevention) Plan

   -

   We’ve updated our Prevention Plan
   <https://portal.cca.edu/thriving/health-wellness/novel-coronavirus-covid19/return-campus-plan/>for
   a safe return to campus to reflect new directives issued by the State of
   California and the San Francisco and Alameda County health departments. We
   will continue to update it as guidelines and restrictions evolve.
   -

   The plan now includes information on testing and screening
   <https://portal.cca.edu/thriving/health-wellness/novel-coronavirus-covid19/return-campus-plan/#studentemployee-health-assessment-testing-monitoring-and-incident-response-protocols>
   for campus-based staff and students in the spring.
   -

   In developing our plan, CCA worked closely with health officials,
   including infectious disease experts from Kaiser and Stanford.

Housing and Dining

Founders Hall is open and housing and dining options are available for
students who need them. Detailed information is available on the Housing
and Dining COVID–19 Protocols
<https://portal.cca.edu/thriving/housing-dining-resed/covid-housing-dining-protocols/>
page on Portal. A few highlights include:

   -

   All rooms are single occupancy.
   -

   Required meal plans are available at Makers Cafe, and all meals are
   take-out only until further notice.
   -

   Residents may move in on either January 23 or March 6.
   -

   Advance COVID–19 testing is required prior to move-in.
   -

   All residents will be required to quarantine in their unit for 14 days
   upon arrival.

Campus planning

Construction on Double Ground, the Studio Gang-designed expansion of our
San Francisco campus that is at the center of our plans for unification,
was scheduled to begin last April and was paused due to the pandemic.
Unification of our two campuses remains central to CCA’s long-term success
and sustainability, and the two-year construction process will commence as
soon as we are able to proceed with clarity and confidence. This delay does
not mean progress has stopped toward our ultimate goal of creating a
unified, residential campus.

Several positive steps have taken place this fall, including:

   -

   Founders Hall, CCA’s new on-campus residence hall and dining facility,
   opened on schedule this fall. Currently home to about 100 CCA students, at
   full occupancy it will house more than 500 students as the cornerstone of
   our new residential campus.
   -

   Clifton Hall, the former dorm on CCA’s Oakland campus, was sold to the
   City of Oakland to provide much-needed, deeply affordable housing for
   homeless families and seniors. The first residents are scheduled to move in
   at the end of this month.
   -

   “The four-plex,” a small building adjacent to Clifton Hall, was also
   sold, as has long  been planned.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging

Throughout the summer and fall, work has been taking place throughout the
college to increase accountability and promote anti-racism and equity at
CCA. Over the summer, the President's Diversity Steering Group (PDSG)
solicited and organized recommendations from the CCA community. Some of
these recommendations were implemented immediately and others are being
developed, as this work is ongoing.

President Beal, Provost Carland, Gesita Tafesse (Assistant Dean of Students
for Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement), and Adriana Lopez
Lobovits (Special Assistant and Board Liaison, Office of the President)
have met regularly through the fall with representatives from three student
groups—Black Brilliance, Students of Color Coalition, and the Working Class
BIPOC Grant Campaign—to address a list of ten demands from the students to
support the needs of CCA’s BIPOC community and create systemic change at
the college. We look forward to reporting the progress we’ve made in
addressing these demands early in the new year.

Another group has been meeting with people across the college to develop a
framework for building diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging fully
into the institutional structure, culture, and curriculum of CCA. Some of
this work has been done with guidance from Dr. Sonia Mañjon
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/10W9s7-T4tu4nzENfN7rO8mEdTe9-x4iE/view?usp=sharing>,
whom CCA engaged as a consultant to advise on the development of the
diversity, equity, and inclusion framework; facilitate an equity-focused
retreat session with the Senior Cabinet; and aid the Board of Trustees in
their efforts to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Also this year, the college developed guidelines and resources,
collectively authored by the Decolonial School
<https://portal.cca.edu/thriving/decolonial-school/>, intended to help the
CCA community integrate the practice of Indigenous Land Acknowledgement
<https://portal.cca.edu/essentials/diversity-equity-inclusion/indigenous-land-acknowledgement/>into
the school’s culture.

Advancement and fundraising

Acknowledging the extraordinary financial pressures and disruption the
pandemic has created for many of our students and their families, the
Advancement team’s primary fundraising focus this year is student aid in
the form of scholarships, emergency funds, and housing grants.

   -

   Our goal for this fiscal year is to raise $1.5 million in incremental
   gifts for scholarships and student aid, with a focus on support for
   diversity students and students with immediate financial need.
   -

   Six months into the fiscal year, Advancement has raised $1.2 million
   toward that goal.
   -

   Gifts and pledges specifically for diversity scholarships total $702,000.
   -

   We have created several new scholarships for diversity students,
   including the Sandra Vivanco Scholarship
   <https://www.givecampus.com/schools/CaliforniaCollegeoftheArts/sandra-vivanco-diversity-scholarship#updates>
   and Diversity in Design Scholarship
   <https://www.givecampus.com/schools/CaliforniaCollegeoftheArts/diversity-in-design-scholarship#updates>,
   and have renewed existing diversity scholarships, such as the Kalmanovitz
   Scholarship.

Collective bargaining

Bargaining continues regarding the two separate and equally important sets
of labor negotiations with SEIU Local 1021. You may find ongoing updates on
Portal for staff collective bargaining
<https://portal.cca.edu/working/office-human-resources/staff-union-updates/?q=staff%20union>
and adjunct faculty collective bargaining
<https://portal.cca.edu/teaching/academic-affairs/union/?q=faculty%20union>
.